The African Face Of Industrialization: Normative and Empirical Dig Into 8 African Countries

By 1963, Uganda, Kenya, Tunisia, Zambia, Namibia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe (to name a few) were on the path to industrialization, however this met with a stasis and degeneration. Yet, they had the potential to do and be industrialized by the 80's which would have led to more opportunities to initiate, sustain and improve human capital development. 

This essay is a general attempt to show why the situation turned out that way and a way forward is posited.

Experts argue that "Africa’s post-independence leaders – like many developing country policy makers in the 1960s and 1970s – looked to industrialization as the key to rapid economic growth. But, the state-led, import substituting industries they created were frequently unsustainable, and efforts to spur industrial development in Africa largely vanished in the 1980’s. While the last two decades of the 20th Century were boom times for industry in low and middle income countries; industry was moving out of Africa."

 This presentation addresses two questions: why Africa should industrialize and how.

Adeyemi Dipeolu, an economic adviser to Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, argies that one reason to explain this reluctance is African leaders are “hesitant to take alternative policies for fear of dictates and hard conditionalities of the West.”

Even when Africa looks for ways to industrialize, there are many hurdles she has to overcome. Experts continue to argue that "Africa can industrialize although this presents complex challenges that call for two broad areas of policy action. The first is the less controversial: continuing the investment climate reforms urged by the international financial institutions, but with increased emphasis on infrastructure, skills and regional integration. The second is likely to provoke more debate: Africa must learn to compete. Industrial policies – such as an export push, spatial industrial policies, and efforts to attract task-based production – are likely to be needed, but we know relatively little about the costs and benefits of such initiatives.

Others argue that there is no rule, or reason that a nation "should" industrialize. To industrialize a country needs 6 things to industrialize. 

1. One needs a source of energy/power e.g., coal, oil, hydropower

2. followed by abundant raw materials such iron, lumber, food, minerals, water, personnel. 

3. money in form of capital

4. infrastructure in form of roads, banks, good credit ratings

5. expertise

6. security

Most African countries are still at the tradition level of modernization. Most are agrarian and so they would benefit more by industrialization. 

1. Agrarian economy is too dependent on weather patterns. A small nation's entire crop can be lost in one catastrophic event. 

2. An industrial economy offers more diverse trade goods, and so a more international economy. 

3. More jobs exist within an industrial economy. The more people that work and have jobs, the more can be taxed. (If a government collects more money in taxes, ,then then the government can offer more programs to benefit the populace.) 

Some reasons why industrialization is not popular stems from different reasons. Experts argue that African countries have not got the wherewithal to take on such mega projects. They argue that on account of repatriation, so much valuable resources were extracted from Africa for so many years in form of timber, minerals, people and animals without reinvestment. They continue to argue that the state of growth in many African countries is such that they cannot foster strategic development outcomes on their own. There is still low capacity  to generate short and long term plans to secure funding to be used to improve humans in form of production, housing, education, job creation, market-driven contexts, industrialization and sustainability of these targets.

They argue that Industrialization as a campaign promises to bring prosperity, new jobs and better incomes for all. Yet the continent is less industrialized today than it was four decades ago. In fact, the contribution of Africa’s manufacturing sector to the continent’s gross domestic product actually declined from 12% in 1980 to 11% in 2013, where it has remained stagnant over the past few years, according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

It is the considerations that have to be made which may delay industrialization. A new report from the Arcus Foundation and Cambridge University Press reveals how the development of infrastructure, buildings, roads, and dams intended to provide access to markets and resources can also threaten the future of the world's most vulnerable communities and most endangered species. Where can the interests and actions of investors, policy makers, and conservationists converge to prevent and mitigate infrastructure-related harm to communities, biodiversity, and habitat?

Other reasons why industrialization may not be popular, experts argue the following: 

1. Industrial economies are a strain on natural resources. 

2. Industrial nations hold the majority blame for Global Warming (if it really exists as some scientists are saying.) 

3. Citizens of industrial nations eat more pre-packaged foods, that are cheaper, but hold less nutritional value. These citizens stand on the edge of obesity.

Given all scenarios, it is still argued by the UN for all African countries to continue on the path of industrialization. “Africa stands on the cusp of a lost opportunity because its leaders—and those who assess its progress in London, Paris and Washington—are wrongly fixated on the rise and fall of GDP and foreign investment flows, mostly into resource extraction industries and modern shopping malls,” said Kingsley Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. In a forcefully argued op-ed, he implored African countries to “reject the misleading notion that they can join the West by becoming post-industrial societies without having first been industrial ones.”  

Moghalu argues that for African governments to industrialize the will to invest in infrastructure will boost social services which deliver. He calls upon states to provide all necessary opportunities for development. He makes the contention that "state-led development policies were responsible for lifting the region’s economies out of poverty." However, there is need to talk and walk at the same time. By this, there is need to involve both state and non-state actors if genuine or felt development is to be owned by all people.