Circumspecte

It's been a week since Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan moved to slash oil subsidies in West Africa's largest oil producing country. Seven days on, and unprecedented protests have been the result. Nigerians argue that the increased oil prices will make overall living costs higher, particularly for food purchases as an estimated 160 million Nigerians live on less than $2 a day. With ongoing protests , it would seem that finally  Africans are realizing the power of mobilization and collective action. President Goodluck's TV address on the subsidy cuts was quoted in a BBC article this morning: "Either we deregulate and survive economically, or we continue with a subsidy regime that will continue to undermine our economy and potential for growth, and face serious consequences." Reading that, the economist in me thinks "He's got a point." Manipulating the economy to ensure lower prices doesn't take away from the fact that in reality, prices ...

With a participant during the AYGC 2011 Last month I was invited to participate in the 2011 African Youth and Governance Conference as a panelist for the African Youth Economic Forum which took place on August 10, 2011 at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel. The conference was attended by over a 100 participants from all over Africa and the forum focused on Education; ICT; Natural Resources & Environment; Employment & Entrepreneurship; and Agriculture as key catalysts for sustaining growth and prosperity in Africa.  All in all, the experience was very powerful and more than ever, it is evident that Africa's youth are poised for action and tired of the rhetoric and 'talk shops' that our current leaders are all too fond of. Case in point: the Ghanaian deputy minister of youth and employment was literally rooted in one spot as participants fired questions at him about HOW exactly government is working to solve the youth unemployment situation. Point blank they told hi...