I have said on many occasions if Africa grows the world would be better for the world. So be we have to do it so Africans can grow a strong middle class. Education is key to a better world economy if they can bring Africa together and Unite like America and China not separate themselves by tribes. Missouri would be its own country with a separate government and so would California. This does not make sense to me but I am only one voice. If Africa had one army funded the continent and could work on infrastructure allowing each state to keep an army like the national Guard and allowing each state its own rule of law. If that country is like the single leader for life so be it or they want democracy so be it. We can not keep seeing Africa as a poor Shit hole country that is just ignorant and not true. China and America are the biggest investors but not enough is being done. Africa does not need more dept and bondage to be free and America build a company in Africa giving this beautiful country and people help not hand out.
Recently, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for African Affairs Florie Liser sat down with America.gov writer Charles Corey to talk about how trade is helping countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Read the article below.
Trade is the key to long-term, sustainable economic growth, and development in sub-Saharan Africa, says Florizelle Liser, assistant U.S. trade representative for Africa.
Because trade is vital to sub-Saharan Africa’s economic future and to improving lives and livelihoods, the 8th Annual African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum, to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, August 4-6, is an important venue for the cultivation of trade opportunities, Liser said in a July 21 interview with America.gov.
“Trade is critically important to economic development. Right now, Africa has about 2 percent of all world trade, which is hard to believe when you think about all of the tremendous resources that they have – oil, diamonds, gold … not to mention all the agricultural products such as coffee, tea, cocoa – and to think that Africa still only has 2 percent of world trade is really incredible. But the power of trade is that if the Africans were able to increase their share of world trade from 2 to 3 percent, that 1 percentage increase would actually generate about $70 billion of additional income annually for Africa,” or about three times the total development assistance Africa gets from the entire world, Liser said.
Many countries in Asia and Latin America, she said, “don’t have even one smidgen of Africa’s natural resources – a country like South Korea, for example – yet they are huge players in the global trading system. This is why having AGOA is one initiative aimed at expanding the U.S. aspect of our economic relationship with the Africans” is so important.
Liser said the United States needs to work with the countries of sub-Saharan Africa in many areas so they can take full advantage of both AGOA and worldwide trading opportunities and send exports to emerging markets such as China, India, and Brazil.
And Africans must begin trading more with each other. “Africans trade the least with each other than all the other continents. It is improving. We are seeing a greater increase in intra-African trade, but,” she emphasized, “the reason that that is important is that you are unlikely to be competitive globally if you are not competitive regionally. So until they open their borders with each other and trade with each other, you are not going to get the level of competition that will allow them to be major providers of any product globally.”
For that reason, the United States strongly encourages all African countries to develop an “AGOA strategy” based on export promotion and competitiveness, she said.
“You look at the products you have, and you determine the three or four particular products or sectors [where] you have a comparative advantage,”
she explained. “Then you look carefully at what are the challenges that face those three or four products or sectors and what would the country have to do to make them more competitive.” Some countries are employing this strategy and bringing together their trade, finance, transport, and energy ministers and investment promotion experts. “You sit all of these people around the table and you have them … determine, step by step, what they have to do to advance the competitiveness of those three or four products or sectors.”
Recently, Liser talked to the Tanzanians about the AGOA strategy they are developing. Tanzania produces the cotton for the Venus Williams line of tennis shirts, which also is manufactured at a plant in Tanzania. “I challenged them. I said you only have one plant. You have all this cotton. You have cotton farmers who would benefit if you could create more of these factories,” which in turn could employ many more people. “The problem is that, as is true with most of the AGOA countries, you have huge potential but you don’t have the investment and the focus on how to take that and duplicate and multiply that.” The apparel industry, she added, is a “gateway to industrialization.”
Africa’s share of the U.S. import apparel market is less than 2 percent. By comparison, she said, depending on the product, Bangladesh exports to the United States three to five times the amount of apparel that is exported to the United States by all sub-Saharan African countries combined. “That shows you that they [the Africans] have huge potential but somehow that is not being advanced.” U.S. imports under AGOA in 2008 totaled $66.3 billion, with $5.1 billion in non-oil trade, a sector that Liser says the United States wants to further expand.
Another issue, she said, is the need for much more domestic and foreign investment on the continent: “Without that investment, these factories that we are talking about building simply will not be built.” She added that “it is not just about foreign direct investment, but also about domestic investment and government investment in the infrastructure that supports trade.”
Acknowledging that there is confusion, Liser said it is important to understand what AGOA really is.
“AGOA is essentially a trade preference program which adds about 1,800 products to the list of about 4,600 products that are already eligible to enter the United States duty-free under the Generalized System of Preferences. The purpose of AGOA in adding those 1,800 products was to give the Africans a competitive advantage in the U.S. market for additional value-added products. … So AGOA is important because it is one of the major ways that we have to help encourage greater value addition to Africa’s production of agricultural and manufactured products.”
Often, she added, people think AGOA is just about textiles and apparel. It is not. “So … the first thing we need to understand is what it does, and that it is working. We are getting a greater number of value-added nontraditional products entering the U.S. under AGOA. But again,” she acknowledged, Africa is “starting from a very small base. So even though we have seen growth, we have not gotten anywhere near the potential.”
Change your channel | Mallence Bart-Williams | TEDxBerlinSalon
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Mallence Bart-Williams introduced her second home Sierra Leone and its talented people, who are part of her project FOLORUNSHO. Find out more via http://www.tedxberlin.de Mallence Bart-Williams was born in Cologne, Germany. She is a Sierra Leonean writer and filmmaker and a German fashion designer. She pursued her studies in economics and finance in Paris, Singapore, and Great Britain. Today she lives across the globe, produces an all-natural cosmetics line in Hong Kong, and is the founder and creative director of the Freetown-based creative collective FOLORUNSHO, a ‘SHARITY’ that she initiated with street kids in Sierra Leone. Due to her German-Sierra Leonean roots, she perceives herself as a bridge connecting two vastly different worlds. Her diverse background enables her to see creative solutions to common problems. Within their three years of operation, her collective has taken homeless children off the streets and into school, developed a sneaker and clothing collection, published a book and documentary of their story, and has held fine art exhibitions. Through her work with FOLORUNSHO, she connects cultural contrast, enabling people to share ideas, take action, and get results. About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
One of the greatest enigmas of our time that begs an explanation is how a continent endowed with so much wealth and resources (human, food, mineral and land) can be so poor as to have 16 of the 20 poorest nations on earth. Hard discussions on this perennial African development question are ignited by Rev Walter in this talk, where he suggests that religion and its cascading effects is the biggest obstacle to development. He also proposes a solution to how Africans can free themselves from religious slavery! Reverend Walter Mwambazi is chiefly a thought transformation leader, but he is also a networker, digital & traditional marketer, published author, newspaper columnist, blogger, neural-linguistic and cognitive enhancement coach, radio & television personality and a social influencer. Before all this, he was an ordained and in-service minister for 5 years. Reverend Walter is married with 3 children. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at
Farai Mubaiwa, 2017 Queen’s Young Leader for South Africa, is an intersectional African feminist, the founder of the Africa Matters Initiative, and a change-maker. She talks about youth empowerment and motivates us to make an impact. If we are the ones we’ve been waiting for – are you still waiting? Farai Mubaiwa is an intersectional African feminist, the founder of the Africa Matters Initiative, a change-maker, and an MSc Masters Student at King’s College London. Africa Matters is a youth led organization that is dedicated to creating spaces for African expression and robust dialogue for Africa to matter to Africans. Prior to pursuing her Masters in the Political Economy of Emerging Markets, Farai was an analyst for Deloitte South Africa Strategy and Operations Consulting. She is passionate about youth development and woman empowerment. Farai is a 2017 Queen’s Young Leader for South Africa and a South African ambassador for the One Young World Youth Summit. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
Gravitas Plus: The race for Africa
Laiqi Walli, a student at the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa, Kenya, offers an enlightening, youth perspective on the progress and ethics of East African development. Laiqa is an ambitious, vocal and focused student at the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa. She has a passion for the Visual Arts and strongly believes in valuing one’s culture. She thrives in an environment that stimulates her intellectually and thus enjoys discussing real world problems and their solutions. Having grown up in Tanzania, she considers the African influence to be an essential aspect of who she is. But she is concerned about the western takeover that she sees happening all around her under the name of ‘development’. She is concerned for the loss of a culture that is so inherent to who she is and wishes to challenges the concept of development. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
Are Africans citizens of the world? | Ooooota Adepo | TEDxBerlin
Poverty isn’t getting worse. Food isn’t running out. Volunteering overseas is not the best way to help. Simon Moss debunks six myths about poverty and asks a series of new questions to reshape the way we think about relief. Simon is a campaigning and community education expert. He has contributed to development issues at some of the world’s leading conferences including the G20, the World Economic Forum, and the Clinton Global Initiative. He is the co-founder of the Global Poverty Project, an education and campaigning organization working towards the end of extreme poverty, and wrote the ground-breaking 1.4 Billion Reasons presentation, which has been delivered 750+ times to 100,000+ people since 2009. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
ALI A. MUFURUKI holds a B.Sc.in Mechanical Eng. Design from the Reutlingen University, Germany, 1986. He was a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tanzania Central Bank, Member of the Board Directors Technoserve, Inc. of Washington, DC and Board Member of Nation Media Group of Kenya .He currently serves as Chairman of the Board Wananchi Group Holdings Kenya, Chairman of The CEOs’ Roundtable of Tanzania, Trustee–Mandela Institute of Development Studies (MINDS), Johannesburg, South Africa, Chairman of the Board of Chai Bora Ltd, Tanzania, Chairman of Muhimbili University (MUHAS) Grants Committee, Council Member of Dodoma University, Member of the Presidential Investors Roundtable of Uganda (PIRT), Member of the Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC), Member of the Advisory Group on Sub-Saharan Africa (AGSA) for the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He is a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute Class of 2001 Founder and Chairman of The Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI) East Africa. Mufuruki is married with four children. About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)SHOW LESS
Modern Self Enslavement by Africans | Dr. Nkosana Moyo | TEDxALC
Nkosana Moyo, an Eisenhower Fellow and a World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Leader of Tomorrow alumnus, holds a PhD in Physics from Imperial College, University of London and an MBA from Cranfield School of Management, UK. Dr. Moyo, is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (‘MINDS’) and the former Chief Operations Officer and Vice President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB). He serves as Member of Fund Advisory Board at Musa Capital Advisors, Ltd. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx