By Hugue Nkoutchou

Founder at the Public Policy in AfricaInitiative (PPiAI)

As the founder of a think tank based in Africathat is developing alternatives to the existing policies most prominent for oureconomies on the continent, I have always wanted to spend 30 minutes with ourpresidents. I believe that African governments should take a scientificapproach towards policy and make use of it to guide their decisions, ideallyalongside their close advisers. It is clear that the way Africa’s governmentsare approaching development has not and will not bring prosperity for their respectivebroader societies within the next decade(s), in which this is unnecessary ifleaders take bold and courageous decisions now that are pragmatic yetevidence-informed and affordable.

Focus onmaking businesses and entrepreneurs happy. Financial resources are scarce. So,governments should focus on supporting them instead of dispersing efforts ontoo many areas of development.

I will lay out a framework of the underlyinginfrastructures that are needed to support entrepreneurs facilitating economicdevelopment within the country. Instead of African leaders taking a state-ledapproach and spreading their resources too thin across multiple developmentinitiatives, they should focus on setting a positive underlying infrastructurefor entrepreneurs to spur private development, a model that was successful inother contexts like Singapore or the developed Gulf States. This would includedemocratizing energy access, reducing corruption, implementing reforms ineducation to support skills needed in the private sector, and upgradingphysical infrastructure.

Firstly, African leaders should prioritizeenergy. More specifically, they need to become more intentional about energyproduction, transportation and distribution. For entrepreneurs and foreigndirect investment schemes to do well, electricity should be cheap and reliable.This provides a good incentive for foreign investors who are interested inentering the industry sector of the continent’s, especially within the contextof the African Continental Free Trade Area. Many existing companies within the industrysector have stopped their operations not due to poor management, but because ofunreliable and unaffordable electricity; given financial constraints, theycannot afford off-grid solutions like solar. If energy were accessible, theycould restart production and begin hiring people. Moreover, facilitating energyproduction and distribution will enable African countries to process theircritical minerals and raw material locally, increasing value addition andeconomic growth. While seen as just a repository for cheap commodities likerare earth metals, the continent should compete with America and China as well;to do so, African countries should subsidize electricity consumption for localcompanies that process critical minerals as well as raw materials.

Moving on, we have the issue of corruption.Corruption has a parasitic relationship with the underlying social, political,and technological infrastructure needed to support entrepreneur and private-ledeconomic growth in Africa. Rent-seeking by the ruling class leads to a poorbusiness environment, which subsequently hinders fiscal improvement. Ourleaders should strengthen the fight against corruption by:

● Deregulating heavily the business environment: Deregulation stiflescorruption while promoting economic freedom. In some Sub-Saharan Africa countries, toobtain a business permit, license and authorization, it would requireentering several public offices. The more offices one enters and the more officialsengaged with, the higher the risk of corruption. Aone-stop-shop for key business sectors’ licenses and permits should beestablished.

● Implementing reliable third-party accountability mechanisms: Civil society, in particular the independentpress and religious leaders, should havepermanent members of committees thatshould be in charge of the monitoring and evaluationof state budgets. These include but are not limited to ministerial, parliamentary, and technical committees.

● Severely stifle rent-seeking: Corruptions should be punished using heavier fines as amplydiscussed by Gary Becker in his works, along with prison sentences

To support the previous improvements in theunderlying infrastructure needed to support private-led development, ourAfrican leaders should also strengthen legalities behind private propertyownership and contract enforcement. These two would lead to many improvementswith one being small businesses having larger access to much-needed financing.As seen in more industrialized countries, the main collaterals banks prefer tosee are land and property title deeds. A well-established necessary improvementis a single-entry platform for owners of property assets and insurances in eachof the respective African countries that is managed by authorized banks andinsurance companies with collaboration from governments.

Additionally is the importance of physicalinfrastructure to support private-led growth. Currently, there are many relicsof previous infrastructure built for extractive instead of value-add purposes.African leaders should not neglect the importance of building highways whichlink farms to markets as well as leading economic capitals of neighboringcountries. It is well documented that 80% of economic goods in Sub-SaharanAfrica are transported via roads. Furthermore, a large percentage of ourharvest perishes on farms in many Sub-Saharan African countries due to poorroad conditions and climatic changes. These two issues are enough incentive tomake road and physical infrastructure construction a priority. Also, building arailroad linking key industrial, agricultural and mining zones to ports willfacilitate the transport of goods which will maximize growth in relatedsectors.

Lastly is the issue of skilling that supportsprivate-led development. Regarding the education industrial complex andindustry partnerships, our leaders should ensure that schools and universitiesclose the gap between skilling offerings and the labor markets’ needs. Anexample of responsible policy would be making it mandatory for a representativeof school teachers and lecturers to liaise with six to ten local companieswithin their area of expertise when preparing teaching materials. This willsupport school curricula being relevant to local enterprises and help prepareour students to solve their communities’ problems. Additionally, the governmentand private sector should allocate at least 3% of our GDP by 2030 on researchand innovation with a focus on the sciences, technology, engineering andmathematics (STEM), powering local innovation and developing homegrowntechnology.

Tofinance the implementation of these strategies, we have to trim the size of thegovernment and move away from foreign aid that stifles our independence and thefreedom to implement the policies we need.

I call upon our leaders in Africa to becourageous and bold and for the sake of good governance and trim the size oftheir governments. There is a positive relationship between reduced governmentand good governance partially due to the deregulation that follows and stiflescorruption. Inspired by the work of Milton Friedman, I argue that for all ofthe governments in Africa, we only need six ministries, those of Defense,(Public) Health, Energy, Justice, Finance and Foreign Affairs. The first threeare related to security, justice is the foundation of democracy, finance isobvious, and foreign affairs is essential for managing geopolitical aspects andalso maintains the comfort of citizens abroad.

The other ministries should be closed.  For example, when thinking about theMinistries of Education, its budget would be better split between provincesusing an evidence-based formula that supports youth aged 25 and below as wellas local provinces. Or, the Ministries of Research’s budget can be managed viathe Ministry of Finance under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Unit, oranother established mechanism. Due to reduced government, this alsonecessitates that the head of provinces and/or governors should be publiclyelected and not nominated by the president, as this reduces heads of states’power and improves accountability via support of permanent residents oflocalities.

This is not a comprehensive account of whatneeds to be done in African countries, but it is an evidence-based start thatwill burgeon countries’ abilities to achieve their respective developmentgoals. My hope is that our elites will not be shortsighted and implementlonger-term perspectives to align their interests with those of the people. Tobring them to that place, we need evidence. We need to demonstrate how theywould profit in the longer term if they side with the people and compare it tohow they benefit now, highlight the large the gap.

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