By Simon Ateba, Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa in Washington, District of Columbia
The World Bank here in Washington DC has released another damning report about poverty in Africa.
New data from the global Bank show that the East African nation of Burundi has the lowest per-capita Gross Domestic Product out of every country in the world, and that 25 of the 28 countries with lowest per-capita GDPs are in Africa, although the continent has more natural resources than anywhere else on earth.
Burundi most recently recorded a per-capita GDP of just $239. The seven lowest national per-capita GDPs in 2020 were all African nations. Somalia was second to Burundi with a GDP per capita of $438.3.
With more than 1.3 billion people, most of them young people, who confronted and defeated COVID-19, Africa is the future of the world with an estimated $24 trillion in natural resources, including oil, gas, gold, diamonds and platinum.
Yes, Africa can be hot all the time, but it has also been spared some of the most dangerous earthquakes and hurricanes in the world that others have to face every day.
So what’s the problem? Why is Africa rich but poor?
Africa’s economic contradictions have been blamed on corruption and mismanagement, internal and regional conflicts, western colonialism, centuries of slave trade, natural disasters, climate change and many other ills, but many have pointed out that the inability of African leaders to invest in ‘mind-power’ bears more blame.
That mind-power is psychological. What Africans need the most is the ability to unleash that power that keeps them from building their own planes, cars, computers, ships, guns, and anything else.
Africa is not poor because it does not have natural resources or the land or the people or even the brains. It is not poor simply because of corruption or mismanagement as there is corruption everywhere, and there is mismanagement and theft everywhere, including here in the United States of America.
Africa is poor, I now believe with enough evidence to point to, because African brains are asleep in Africa. I believe that by unleashing that power, Africa can be as rich and even richer than the United States of America. And that’s my take today.
