Nigeria: A vivid picture of what African Countries should do to achieve full economic prosperity

By Patrick Mayoh

I really struggled to find this title and I am sure I could have come up with a better one. What exactly do I mean by full economic prosperity? The fastest growing economies are in Africa and some African nations are expected to grow by 7% or higher as they have done over most of the past decade. But GDP growth is not enough. As long as people do not feel the benefits of a growing economy, GDP growth by itself does not make much of a difference, except on paper. The Boston Consulting Group recently unveiled a very interesting framework for measuring well-being in a nation. Bhutan relies on a gross national hapiness index as a better way to gauge the economic well-being of its citizens.

Nigeria is a good case in point for that matter. It has a fast growing GDP, 44% of the population are under 15 (auguring a good population dividend) and it has abundant oil reserves. Nigeria is expected to have a GDP growth of 7% this year and draws a lot of interest from investors and foreign multinationals. Yet according to this article from the financial times the poverty rate is still 63%  and youth unemployment stands at 37% while unemployment overall stands at 24%. As with many African nations there is great potential and numerous opportunities, but people are yet to benefit.

I believe leaders should think about educating our young people. This should not just be about building more schools, or increasing the literacy rates, but more about providing the skills that are needed for our economies to compete in the 21st  century. Moreover I think our Governments should invest in the kind of infrastructure that will attract and retain investors. Power cuts are prevalent in Nigeria as in most of Africa, how do we hope to attract FDIs with that? Lastly we need our Governments to be staffed with people of integrity, corruption is reportedly endemic in the Nigerian society as in many African countries. I hope the elections in 2015 in Nigeria will provide leaders with vision, and leaders that will tackle the boko haram, the poverty and the education issues efficiently. And I hope this will be an inspiration for other African countries.

Patrick Mayoh is a chief strategy officer at aura cameroon