Ali Mufuruki atema cheche BusinessWeek

[Dar_Millionaire]

Excerpts ....

I believe it is O.K. to go to the bank - or to a friendly government, for that matter - if what you are looking for is money. But you cannot turn to the bank or a friendly government for business ideas or strategies to develop a country.


Africa's poor development record can be explained in a large part by the fact that we allowed our bankers and donors to be at once the source of capital, our development ideas, and our development strategies. There is no way that can end well. Africa cannot and should not outsource its own development work.

Valuable insights there from a person who knows the value of ideas and personal ambitions.



The whole scoop at Infotech's Mufuruki on African Entrepreneurship - BusinessWeek

 

[Superman]

Yeah . . . .

 

[LazyDog]

Here is another excerpt from the article:

You have written about the crisis of leadership in Africa. What are the roots of the crisis and how can it best be dealt with?

The roots of this crisis lie in the tragic acceptance by successive generations of African leaders-and, sadly, by millions of ordinary Africans-of a notion that we are victims of a particularly traumatizing and dehumanizing experience of slavery and colonialism.

They believe that this experience has forever robbed us of our ability to be whole again, so we're deserving forever the sympathy and generosity of the rest of the world as a substitute for working to support our own development efforts.

I recognize the enormity of the physical and psychological scars that all Africans must bear as a result of these unfortunate events. I, however, do not accept that as a people we are not able to move on and build a better life for ourselves, using our own resources and labor.

The Chinese, the Indians, the Jews, the Vietnamese, and many more were enslaved, massacred, and colonized-some in ways infinitely more horrible than any African can claim. Yet their past sufferings have made them stronger. Africa's problems can be attributed almost exclusively to a lack or failure of leadership.

Dambisa Moyo recently published her book, Dead Aid, a critique of aid programs and government leadership in Africa. Do you agree with her that a deadline or cutoff of government-to-government aid is needed to force a transformation in governance and economic development in Africa?

I fully agree with Moyo and the timing of her book could not have been better, coming just as the global financial crisis was unfolding, forcing many people to reassess the future of the aid business.

I believe it is O.K. to go to the bank-or to a friendly government, for that matter-if what you are looking for is money. But you cannot turn to the bank or a friendly government for business ideas or strategies to develop a country.

Africa's poor development record can be explained in a large part by the fact that we allowed our bankers and donors to be at once the source of capital, our development ideas, and our development strategies. There is no way that can end well. Africa cannot and should not outsource its own development work.