The Rise of Africa

THE RISE OF AFRICA

Africa is one of the seven continents in the world. It’s the second-largest and second-most-populous continent with 30.3 million km² (11.7 million square miles).

Most countries in Africa were colonized by one or two of the following; Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. While in colonization, the colonial masters were at the helm of affairs, but upon gaining independence from the colonial masters, nationals of each country started becoming substantial leaders of their country.

How far can we say countries in Africa have developed in this post-colonial rule considering education, economy, science and technology, financial services and hosts of other developments measures?

While some countries like South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, and Nigeria can boast of huge developments in various sectors leading to less reliance on foreign aids, other countries like Central Africa Republic, Niger, Malawi, and Liberia are rated as top poorest countries in the world.

Fallacy of hasty generalization will be committed if a continent of 54 countries is adjudged as one based on various parameters, but nevertheless, while some African countries are developing and others are less developed, Africa standard of living rate can’t be compared to that of world’s richest countries.

Checking through various development measures, can we say Africa’s level has been rising enough to a good and expected level?

  • Science and Technology- The continent has transformed from being dependent on other continents on technological developments to a self-innovative one as there are now various indigenous tech companies in Africa such as Interswitch (Nigeria), Jobberman (Nigeria), not forgetting telecoms such as MTN, Globacom, Safaricom. Talking about science and discoveries, Africa needs to step up its game when it comes to vaccines and medications for deadly disease ravaging the continent. A good example is meningitis outbreak in Nigeria where vaccines are not enough despite receiving 500,000 doses of Meningitis C vaccine from WHO
  • Sports- Another parameter for measuring development is sport. Considering the biggest sporting events in the world; the Olympics and the FIFA world cup, it can be seen that Africa is a little above average. The FIFA world cup has had a total of 20 tournaments has been held and unfortunately an African country hasn’t won any, the highest has African country has been at a world cup is the quarter-final and has been fortunate to host 1 tournament, the 2010 edition held in South Africa. In Olympics, judging with the 2016 Rio Olympics, Kenya led the chart for Africa with a total of 13 medals ( 6 G, 6 S, 1 B)
  • Economy- According to an estimate from IMF in 2016, the United States of America is regarded as the country with the highest nominal GDP in the world with a GDP of $19m while the leading African country in the 28th position is Nigeria with a nominal GDP of $537bn. The figures are clear enough for comparison sake. Africa, you can rise better…
  • Politics- Considering the peaceful transition of power in recent elections in Ghana and Nigeria, and also the peaceful resolution of Gambia crisis, it can be said that politics in Africa is gaining some forms of high points, even though there are dictatorial rules in countries like Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea.

Irrespective of the lows that have been scored, Africa is still developing and is home to seven rapidly growing megacities: Cairo (Egypt), Accra (Ghana), Johannesburg-Pretoria (South Africa), Khartum (Sudan), Kinshasa-Brazzaville (Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo), Lagos(Nigeria) and Nairobi (Kenya)

(http://webs.schule.at/website/Megacities/Africa_en.htm)

Africa is rising and can rise further and better…

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