Economic Development Perspectives for Africa

For the decades, Africa was combined into a single “country,” which is a false opinion about this continent. However, many African countries became automatically judged as poor and with no possibilities to build a strong economy. While the vast majority of individuals claim about the African backwardness in almost every part of life, the continent has many outstanding countries which can provide an overall rise of the African economy for the next few decades.

When it comes to economic development, information and human capital are two factors that significantly influence the process creating the fundamental basis of economic growth. Due to this fact, many African countries found an opportunity to increase educational level throughout the continent (Stein 123). The emphasis was correctly made on high education, which lead some countries, such as Kenya or South Africa.

As a result, when developed units of the economy fell into “educational crisis,” African representatives succeed in taking the most important knowledge of the Western education process, especially liberal ideas that were not popular in recent times. For instance, Zouache states that “the colonial debates involved a discussion of property, whether in the sense of land ownership…or under the prism of property rights” (374). However, most countries are seeking the problem of European and American influence from the scientific perspective, which might directly affect the future growth of some African countries (Chelwa 79). Nevertheless, if the educational system, in general, works on the long-term perspective, then African significant economic growth may become a reality.

Works Cited

Chelwa, Grieve. “Does Economics Have an ‘Africa Problem’?” Economy and Society, vol. 50, no. 1, 2021, pp. 78–99.

Stein, Howard. “Institutionalizing Neoclassical Economics in Africa: Instruments, Ideology and Implications.” Economy and Society, vol. 50, no. 1, 2021, pp. 120–147.

Zouache, A. “Institutions and the Colonisation of Africa: Some Lessons from French Colonial Economics.” Journal of Institutional Economics, vol. 14, no. 2, 2017, pp. 373–391.