The Future is Bright

It is well known that they are large benefits arising from collaboration amongst tertiary education institutes around the world. But most of African colleges and universities are far lagging behind, mainly because of poor internet connectivity in different parts of the continent:

Paying more for internet access than just about anywhere else in the world doesn’t help the continent’s struggling education and economies.

The good news is that, very soon African education institutions are going to be among the first beneficiaries of high speed connectivity brought by fiber optic cables.

The broadband, which landed in East Africa last month of June 2009, is supposed to be operational by October.

With the usage of new fiber optic connectivity, in lieu of satellite, experts predict that telecommunications costs could go down by 60 percent as the cost of bandwidth will significantly drop.

The education sector is among those to benefit from this development because high speed data solutions are expected with the increased bandwidth.

The World of Opportunities for Changemakers

With the globalization and communication facility brought by internet, today it’s easier than ever for every young woman and man across the world to take chances of opportunities available out there.

On top of scholarships available on internet, various organizations have the Young Professionals Programs to integrate the freshly graduates from all countries.

The Young Professionals Program is a starting point for an exciting career in those international organizations.

The programs are designed to attract outstanding young and motivated individuals from around the world, who have demonstrated a commitment to development, supported by academic success, professional achievement and potential for leadership.

Those organizations are like the African Development Bank, the UNICEF, the World Bank (receiving the applications until 15 July 2009) and many others.

Besides, there are also other platforms, like the Young Professionals Forum (South Africa) which provides young professionals with skills, contacts and opportunities to help them succeed by using internet and social networks sites like Facebook.

These opportunities and many others are not only future jobs for the youth but they also bring together young women and men from different parts of the world, help them to exchange ideas, cultures and dreams, hence the chance to gain more understanding, which they need to bring a new world order.

No wonder why these young women and men are confident to be the Changemakers of our world:

Establish currency for every district and province of Africa ?

Imagine what would be the damages or advantages if every district, village and/or atleast province had its own currency ?

This would create more jobs in money exchanging and banking sector, notes printing (and creating more Gedeon Gono's in Africa), coins designing, and so foth, in isn't it ? Aren't we in period of jobs retrenchment accross the sectors ? So what a chance of coming up with a new way of creating some new thousands of jobs. That translate into thousands of currencies from Cape to Cairo, from Mombasa to Dakar. A world record ! I feel you've already started to suspect that something is wrong with me upstairs because my suggestion is totally wrong. If so, let me assure you that I'm fine. But I'm not the only one or I wish to be the only one but unfotunately this is not the case. So your own wish is for Africa to have a single currency. The single currency for our mother continent to make our monetary life easier. It's sad to see that the leaders of Africa are very flexible when it comes to delay this process. As usual there no sense of urgency. Yesterday, another kind of bad news came from Abuja announcing that "the December 2009 deadline is not feasible for the start of the single currency and monetary union," for West Africa Monetary Zone-Wamz (Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Guinea)! They resolved to start 'Eco' money in 2015.

Why talking about only West Africa ? Simply because six years ago, African leaders (given always good advices from Bretton Woods institutions) decided to put the the idea of a single continental currency on hold until...2021, and rather focus on regional currencies.

That's how these regional blocs went back to define their own road maps for regional currencies. Southern Africa by 2018 and East Africa by 2012. The latter is a market of more than 100 thousands population with two different francs and three different shillings currencies.

Although there some noticeable problems, experts agree that common currency leads to gains in economic efficiency: "These include the elimination of transaction cost and risks associated with uncertain fluctuation of the exchange rates, simple platform for price comparison which makes price differences more noticeable and helps to equalise it across borders" among others.

When is Africa Rising ?

Governments, entrepreneurs and their associations have all tried without really much coordination to develop this continent. The African Diaspora members from different parts of the world recently started to invest some of their small incomes in the motherland continent and others are providing remittances to their dependants.

Many people are still viewing the African bad leadership as the main cause of its poverty and on the other side, economic integration is advanced as one of quick solution to promote trade between African and growth among communities.

In an interview with former SABC’s Peter Ndoro, the CEO of Q-Venture Group operating IT Telecoms in Africa, Keith Boyd highlights some of obstacles while doing business in Africa and some of mistakes by businesses:



But with most of natural resources and a population nearly 1 billion, experts agree that Africa is full of opportunities for every possible business.

This is showcased in various researches and books. The case potentials of Africa for business is also highlighted in Africa Rising written by Vijay Mahajan, a marketing professor at The University of Texas at Austin (Maryland) who reveals Africa as one of the world's fastest growing markets , a remarkable marketplace and a continent with massive needs and surprising buying power:

Now, looking at this situation from an individual point of view what is it that you and I can do ?

Leading Africans out of poverty ?

Many Africans are falling back into desperate poverty as the global the crisis has swept away the benefits of several years of economic reform. But when it comes to Africa, the current financial and economic crisis is just like adding insults to injuries of bad governance, conflicts, corruption and autocratic leadership.

Doing business in many parts of the continent is almost impossible for local entrepreneurs and foreign investors.

What historians have known for years is that prosperity depends on good leadership.
Hundreds of business women and men from different parts of the world are gathering in Johannesburg on 22 July 2009, to discuss business and exchange ideas of leadership.

The leadership summit hosts big speakers like Malcolm Gladwell, Wendy Luhabe, Richard Branson and many others.

Speaking about new leadership in the world, Sir Richard Branson told money web last week: “It's just been so sad that there were a lot of wasted years before Barack Obama took over, and it's just wonderful to have a bright, intelligent person in such a position of authority in the world, and somebody who's willing to listen”.

Organizers say “the summit will showcase the latest, cutting-edge approach to leadership from some of the most innovative and forward-thinking minds in global business in an effort to nurture the next generation of up-and-coming maverick thinkers in South Africa”.
Then if this is the case I hope the whole summit will be live on many TV channels in order to “nurture” many people of the “next generation” who can’t afford to pay R 6500 (almost US $ 1000) to attend the leadership summit.