The G8: Who Switched off Market Signals to Africa?

Published on 24th May 2011

G8 members share a light moment               Photo courtesy
The regular meetings held by G8 leaders point at the strategic importance of focused market forces. Unfocussed market forces will remain just that: wild and untapped forces. Just like one has to harness wind, solar and hydro energy; African countries ought not to expect market forces to work in their favor unless they urgently seek to harness them.

Amongst G8 countries, market signals spur growth and productivity. To borrow from a recent communiqué by the Asia – Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC); open and transparent trade promote food security. APEC notes that information sharing on market conditions and right market based price signals to farmers drive up production and investment decisions. Farmers’ productivity is enhanced because the market signals reach financiers, drivers of technology (innovators), insurers and policy makers among other players in the value chain. Africa, especially sub Saharan Africa has been shielded from these “market signals.”

The G8 countries account for 14% of the world’s population and 60% of Gross World Productivity. Under the presidency of France, these countries have prioritized to reform the International Monetary System; strengthen financial regulation; combat commodity price volatility; support employment, strengthen social dimensions of globalization; fight corruption and work on behalf of development (especially infrastructure development). These are key tools that the G8 proposes to work on to harness “market forces” in their favor. Will these initiatives switch on market signals to Africa? 

If the G8 is driven by altruism, they ought to formulate policies that focus on identifying their contribution to obstacles that hinder Africa’s quest to improve its standards of living and quality of life. In their final communiqué, they should outline such obstacles and how they (The G8) propose to remove them. The overriding principle of the G8 nations ought to be to quote a popular saying; “…not to teach grass how to grow, but simply remove the stone from the lawn and let the grass grow.”

However, you bet the G8 in the interest to tap market forces for their own use will employ the tool of AID to sustain systems that work against African aspirations.  More aid will be pledged to corrupt the African “software” or operating system. Africans will celebrate enrolment rates in an education system that does not address the continent’s priorities and breeds inferiority. Wealthy nations will fund governance systems that elevate elite interests at  the expense of those of the citizenry; treat elective politics as a benchmark of democracy and good governance and sustain a global market system that relegates the continent to primary exports and production (economics of exclusion due to shielded “market signals” as opposed to inclusion).

It is wrong for Africa to accept the old paradigm that surrenders to others the molding of market forces for the continent.  With a collective GDP projected to hit $ 2.6 trillion in 2020 and consumer spending $1.4 trillion; Africans must take urgent steps to harness their own market forces. The recent statistics from Africa Development Bank to the effect that the continent’s middle class has expanded to hit 313 million people urgently calls for a culture of investment as opposed to elevating Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that simply sustain “help mentality.” 

Africans must prioritize to harness their own market forces on the continent to spur productivity. Lift the stones off the grass and push for intra Africa investments and trade. To switch on market signals; Africa must develop its own mechanism for harnessing market forces. 

By James Shikwati.

The author [email protected] is Founder Director of Inter Region Economic Network (IREN Kenya) and The African Executive.


This article has been read 1,601 times
COMMENTS