(4 minutes read)
Covid-19 might not have affected Africa in an intense manner as it had
impacted other continents. Still a lot of grey areas have been brought
in the forefront. Many feel it should be a wakeup call for the
continent to focus on areas, which have been neglected or overlooked
for quite some time. Foremost is the healthcare sector.
www.trendsnafrica and Africa4U have been harping on this point for
quite some time. The recent editorial of the Africa4U titled “
Covid-19 sets off alarm bells to fix Africa’s health systems” captures
the present state of the fragile healthcare system in the continent
and elucidates how important is to bring in parity with a structure
having rudimentary facilities. It also highlights the importance of
collective efforts of the countries in the region to build its own
systems rather than depending on outside agencies.
Next in importance is food production. World has a total population of
over 7.5 billion. More than half of that population is spread in three
regions- China, India and Africa. An added disadvantage of Africa is
whereas the other two regions –Chin and India- are nation states with
strong centralized administrations, Africa is a parcel of 54
countries. That way a coordinated policy may not be a natural
corollary. Yet, multilateral organizations like African Union, AfCATA
etc should come forward to drive a single policy that may be
uniformly applicable to all countries. Having the largest land mass,
African can be a granary to the world to feed its over 7.5 billion
people. Yet, a vast tract of its fertile soil is not cultivated. It is
not alone, food grain production, but also horticultural crops like
cashew nuts, Cocoa etc can be money spinners at least for some
countries . But, so far, the benefits of these crops are being
misappropriated by middlemen and large multinational corporations.
Farmers, who grow this in their field have to satisfy with the
pittance they receive from the middlemen. The governments in the
continent should break the unholy nexus between middlemen and
multinational corporations, which process these fruits and vegetables.
More than 30% of the world’s mineral resources come from Africa. That
includes oil, gold, diamond, coal, copper, dolomite and a lot more. It
is instructive to see how much the continent has gained in the
bargaining while trading the rare earths. It is again the
concessionaire, contractor and bureaucracy nexus, which have gained
most in the bargain. Also, the common man across Africa is facing the
fallout of the excessive focus on mining. For instance, countries like
Nigeria, Angola etc had strong agrarian economies. With the advent of
oil, many have left farms and moved to the oil sector as employees or
are engaged in some menial trade or avocation connected with the
hydrocarbon sector. Since the oil prices are tapering off in a
consistent manner and many predict that oil prices may not bounce back
at least in the near term, it is important that the countries in the
region focus alternative sources of tapping resources and foreign
exchange to meet their needs for import of essential goods, while
building the capacities domestically in a calibrated manner.
That will empower Africa to face shocks like the Covid-19 and to
pursue their own agenda.
