Larry Ettah
11 November 2008
opinion
Lagos — In the globalizing or indeed globalized world, it is imperative that Africa must rise. Europe is history, America the past, Asia the present, and Africa is the future.
For Global Capital firms today, it is often said if you do not have an emerging market strategy then you don't have a good strategy and if you do not have an African strategy then you have no strategy. There are positive signs here and there but I am sure we will all agree that it will amount to convenient fiction if we fail to recognize that Africa is still a continent of a thousand mutinies and senseless wars, carnage of the innocent, a record of lamentable slow growth, high poverty, unemployment, preventable death and diseases, and yes, corruption. Unhelpful national politicians, who often adopt ethnic, religious and of late xenophobic platforms. A continent where the inconvenient troth remains that we are yet to have a suffice of competitive democracy with rival parties, alternating in power. Democracy without democrats and default mode of so called government of national unity which is a polite negotiated arrangement more interested in distributing largesse and power than reforming the socio-economic environment. A continent with undeserving rich, and undeserving poor. If Africa will not recede into irrelevance or at best marginalization in the new global economy, we must challenge these orthodoxies and some of those things which are painfully familiar than accept them. Africa is a continent where we have the conditions needed to create wealth and innovate but at the same time protect those who started so far behind to benefit from the possibilities we now have.
As we seek to emerge from our difficult history to build a continent of political stability, economic stability, social cohesion, and justice, business people like you must be prepared to play a role of leadership in shaping debate on issues such as economy, education, health and create work environments that have supportive values and culture as enablers for you to exercise such leadership and advocacy. In saying this we must recognize of course that Africa is not a homogenous entity. The more appropriate context will have to be Africa south of Sahara, which excludes Northern and Mediterranean Africa. Even in looking at South Africa for instance, we must recognize that inherent in that nation are third world levels of poverty, crime and standards of living as well as aspects of infrastructure, per capita income levels, economic institutions and development that are similar to first world and OECD levels. In talking about the challenges and prospects of Africa rising, we must be clear which Africa we are talking about.
I have titled my speech, "Creativity and the Rise of Africa" which given the businesses you are engaged in, Marketing Communication, Advertising, Branding, Publicity etc. may not be surprising especially given the number of references to creativity. I noticed as I visited TBW A Concept Africa's website and read through information about your businesses. But beyond that, my choice of that topic affirms my belief that the rise ·of Africa will have to do with a new thinking, a new approach, a new commitment and new ideas. In short, creative and proactive thinking rather than just physical and tangible resources and commodities, would be the platform for the rise of the continent. This will apply not just to the marketing communication practitioners such as yourselves, but to manufacturing and production businesses like UACN, financial services industry, professionals, IT and communication service providers, educational institutions, indeed the entire range of public and private sector players across the African continent. As it is often said, ideas are capital, the rest is just money. Ideas and its execution will be the currency of the New Africa. It is also instructive we remember that it is said; "Best way to hide something from a black man is to put it in a book". So how will we discover the ideas we need, share them, use them, adapt them and recreate them. How do we prevent ourselves from being too secure in our own insights and unimpressed by the accumulated wisdom of other continents? How do we avoid the merry disregard and sometimes seductive but dangerous argument; this is Africa, it will not work here! How do we in recognizing that even though our culture, our languages, politics and sometimes our religion divide us, we all share a kindred spirit more than we share a common geography. Our values are fundamental tv our future as it is to our past. Do we have a culture that may hinder Africa's rise?
. Societies in which new ideas are constantly nourished and created will have a steady supply of innovation and growth. The reverse is also true. That is the challenge of Africa. Africa is not restrained by capital such that it has to depend on donations, grants and foreign aid. That would assume our problem is budget deficits. We have a deficit yes but of a different kind. Ideas deficit, creativity deficit, innovation deficit and confidence deficit. We are resource rich but innovation deficient. Africa is too big to rely on food import and should be too proud to depend on food aid indefinitely. As a continent, we will need to run faster just to stay in the same place.
I believe the evidence of recent history suggests that this innovative human spirit is fostered (not surprisingly) more readily in free enterprise democracies, in societies characterized by freedom and entrepreneurship, in open societies and cultures that respect individual talent and uniqueness. As with companies, so with nations and continents and Africa will have to strengthen its democracies and free up the entrepreneurial spaces so that individual genius can be liberated. A continent with open economy, eschews protectionism, welcomes foreign investmen (declaration of ignorance) run flexible labour markets.
Africa has challenges but so does it have opportunities, in reality it is a challenging opportunity. There is clearly some progress. New private sector players in Nigeria and the rest of Africa are also following UAC's example. Nigerian Banks are expanding into Africa and even into Europe and the rest of the world. Our telecommunications industry is expanding in Africa leveraging. the domestic success in Nigeria's growing market. Nigerian and African markets are more investor friendly and entrepreneurial action is growing. Women and youth interest in business is stronger and micro-finance is taking roots in Nigeria. Media and communication related enterprises arc flourishing, as well as entertainment - music, video, publishing and sports entrepreneurship. But more needs to be done.
At the root of competitiveness in Africa must lie our education system which across the continent suffers from poor funding, insufficient and poorly trained teachers and decrepit infrastructure. Beyond that, the philosophy of education must change in favour of encouraging students to question and probe rather than routine memorizing and note learning. Our social structure has to improve. Societies have to be less intolerant of mavericks and intellectuals, and this applies to businesses as well. Science and technology investment is required in internet and broadband connectivity, science and laboratory equipment and the like; we need venture capital in more pervasive volumes so that risk capital will be available for those who want to venture and who have sensible (or even insensible) ideas; businesses and government must invest in research and development and support universities and research institutes to return to their core function of seeking new knowledge and solutions rather than becoming part of the government bureaucracy. Business must then link up with research institutions with funding, partnership and mutual knowledge sharing and ensure that research output is useful and used by business. African governments must consciously seek to recreate a middle class that can purchase the goods and services. produced by African businesses. As income gets to a threshold, mass consumption of consumer goods such as consumer electronics, household and financial service will take off. Women must work; have few children and less dependency thus leading to growth.
We must apply creativity in manufacturing, banking and finance, services, agriculture, ICT, governance and policy making, education, healthcare etc. and of course in selling Africa and African enterprises which I think TBW A/Concept and its colleagues in the marketing communication field are very well placed to do. African businesses must produce formidable range of products and have local knowledge of its markets. Africa must exploit its size and geography as we lack scale in a world where scale and size is becoming very important. May I ask today, who is the Afro consumer? Do we have iqentical consumer segment across different countries in Africa (DSTV generation). Do markets exist horizontally in Africa as a continent as not just vertically in countries. When we do segmentation are we looking only for need similarities or should we also not be looking at need differences.
To do all this, we need talent, welI-educated and exposed African and expatriate minds who can bring knowledge and skills to bear on African business and governance. We also need investment and capital as it is clear that Africa south of the Sahara, excluding South Africa is lacking in the levels of investment capital required to deliver power, transport and communication infrastructure, services and utilities, education and healthcare and modern technology that is needed for Africa to truly rise to the chalIenge of the 21st century global economy. Thus we need colIaboration between African nations and businesses, particularly between South African firms and the rest of the continent. To do this successfully however we need a partnership and collaboration mindset rather than a paradigm of conquest or exploitation (No new colonization). We have to review the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) initiative and the Business Roundtable platform therein to ensure it is more private-sector driven and government supported initiative rather than the other way round. As things stand, it is failing if not failed. We need to balance our products and services with the context and wallet of the markets in which we seek to play; and we must build viable, sustainable long term alliances between businesses across Africa. Even if we are not global companies we must realize that we will face global standards and therefore avoid thinking local and acting parochial. We must develop global mindset. Even as local players, African businesses must understand global market dynamics to enhance value creation. As African Executives, you must have intellectual energy; energy to challenge yourself, to take on new minds, to execute ideas. We must strive for analytical rigor to break complex things down to simpler models but retain the ability to synthesize; that is take unrelated things and make connections is equally important.
-Ettah, a company executive, wrote from Lagos
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