The Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD), Mr Senyo Hosi, has observed that African countries have failed to translate the recent strong growth in Gross Domestic Products (GDP) in their economies into direct prosperity to improve the lives of their people. In spite of outperforming the rest of the world in GDP growth, he said improvement in life expectancy had slowed while inequality and joblessness were worsening in the continent. “Africa is rising but not with its own. It is rising geographically but not with its people,” he said.
Hosi said, “Africa must industrialise by optimising the value of its natural resources and agrarian output. It must structurally transform its economies from a primitive primary production model to a secondary and tertiary production model,” he said.
He said it was disturbing that “Africa continues to export crude and import petroleum products. It cannot continue to export copper and import electrical cables, export cotton and import used clothing, export coffee and import Starbucks. It is unacceptable that Africa outpaces the world in arable land per capita and yet it is food insecure,” he said.
Explaining that the current primary level-based production economies of Africa made the continent highly vulnerable to commodity price volatilities.
According to him, while cocoa beans may experience volatility and weakness in prices, the prices of Cadbury and Lindt chocolates are relatively stable.
This, he said, affirmed the economic view that exports of manufactured products are a lot less volatile and sensitive to long-term price deterioration, hence the need for Africa to industrialise.
“Sadly, countries such as Switzerland with no production of cocoa are rather known to produce the best chocolates in the world with raw materials from poor farmers in places such as Asankragua (in the Western Region) in Ghana."
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