Market critics say that government intervention is necessary to prevent few firms from monopolizing the market. This negates the fact that people are smart enough to make rational economic decisions without government planning or intervention. Poor people need no government sympathy but demand that the government gets out of their way by allowing market institutions to flourish.

When a government monopolizes any sector, low quality, high costs and inefficient services result.  The recent revolution in the telecom sector is testimony that government monopoly is detrimental to development, economic growth and wealth creation.

Under the government, telecom was exclusively for the rich. To get a line, one had to wait endlessly for months. When markets came in, a huge number of people, particularly the poor can get both fixed and mobile phone services without much bureaucratic huddles. When markets reign, every willing investor is given the freedom to exit and enter the market.

Before the introduction of mobile phones, vast swaths of Africa were communication voids. There are just three landlines per hundred Africans. Most of them are expensive and very unreliable. Even in Somalia, mobile phone masts testify to the telecommunications revolution that has taken place despite the absence of any functioning national government since 1991.

In Nigeria, when government-owned NITEL held monopoly for almost 50 years, it could only provide fewer than 500,000 lines. In 2002, privately owned Globacom won a license to compete with NITEL.  In less than five years, it had rolled out over 3.2 million lines. The price of telephone installation compared to when government-owned NITEL monopolized the market reduced from over $500 (including tips) to less than $50. The argument that markets create monopolies is largely unfounded. On the contrary, government monopolies result into granting special concessions to friends and supporters. Markets in the last decades have shown that poor countries can be rich if they participate in free and voluntary exchange of ideas and goods.

Education

“Just Imagine that wind blows and this ramshackle of a school comes crashing down on our children,” a Nigeria Education Minister once said. Critics falsely assert that markets can’t meet human needs such as education and health. Markets have come to the rescue of several people in meeting their education and health care needs. Poor people are leaving free public schools in droves, for fee- paying private schools. According to a recent study in the low income Ga District of Ghana surrounding Accra, only 25 per cent of the schoolchildren are in government schools while 64 per cent attend private school.

In three local governments in Lagos State of Nigeria (Surulere, Badagary, and Kosofe), an estimated 75 per cent of school children are enrolled in private schools. This suggests that many people have realized that the government cannot meet their children’s education, thereby turning to markets to provide quality education. Public schools are marked by inadequate learning facilities, high teacher-pupil ratio, decline in performance and poor maintenance of learning structures.

Water Supply

People rely on the market to provide good drinking water. Private individuals now vend water through trucks and cans. They ensure regular availability and proper maintenance of their boreholes. If they do not take these steps, they go out of business. In remote villages, markets work to make water available where the government fails to provide it. They don’t wait for the government to make that happen. They simply resort to the market to make water available. It is always available with no over-estimated bill. There is incentive for those that are supplying the water to make it available at a price mutually agreeable by both sellers are buyers.

Take a look at government taps, they remain dry but over-estimated bills are regular. Where government taps are running, water is poorly treated making it unfit for human drinking. A lot of funds have been injected into making water available to millions of Africans in cities and villages but water is not available. Where have the funds gone?

Religion

Religious activities provide a good example of the free market. Religious demonstrate freedom of choice. Many churches, mosques and other places of worships now compete for members. Since choice of religion is guaranteed in Africa, religious advertisements jostle for attention whenever you turn. Churches compete for venues and are ready to pay the stipulated fees. Undeniably, in the last couple of years there has been a tremendous growth in the number of Pentecostal churches.

This is an area where there is no government regulation, legislation and limit to the number of churches that can spring up in any given location. Irrespective of where you live, nothing stops you from starting your own church, nurturing it, and seeking ways to expand it.

Since the churches fend for themselves and get no direct government support, they are innovative, entrepreneurial and risk takers. They are alert to new opportunities and are willing to incur the necessary transaction costs by pioneering new activities and products. When the churches make correct decisions, followers increase, as do the contributions and donations. In every respect there is incentive and motivation for the leaders. If any of them cannot meet worshipers' expectations, their congregants vote with their feet. When a "product" does not produce expected results, membership and financial losses are incurred.

Most governments try to create wealth by indirectly controlling peoples’ lives. Wealth can be created if people are given incentives to do so. The system that best makes this to happen is free market, based on secure property rights and legal institutions to facilitate exchange. This has been widely discovered for generating incentives for wealth creation.  The path out of poverty is through wealth creation that is attainable through free market.