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Berta Nelson's avatar

Can investor's use their capital to honestly contribute to greater prosperity for all? Can investor consciousness grow to use wealth not only to create more wealth but to have that wealth be enjoyed by the greater community? Looking to invest with an eye to improve living standards is the kind I'd like to see, not just in Africa, but around the world. No one says investors shouldn't earn a profit, but many are asking how much is legitimately "yours" & how much belongs to those who made it all happen.

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Ryk BlueStar's avatar

Thank you for writing this piece. It is fantastic that a Free Trade Agreement is in the works. Africa can use today’s technology to leapfrog other geograpgic markets who had to develop with legacy technology. BRIX has bookended the continent with Egypt at the top and South Africa at the bottom. Let’s fill it in!

But seriously, 54 countries, plus tribal identies, create a complex web of collaboration. There is a lot of reconciliation that has to occur.

My humble suggestion is that the extractive industries, of which there are many, pay a significant percentage fee into a pan-African fund that either a) builds infrastructure, or b) provides a dividend to the African citizens (preferred). Extractive industries that refuse can be nationalized and reformed. This model works in Alaska. Most extractive minerals are non-renewable; there is no reason that the extractions can’t benefit the people.

Can Africa be a ‘people over profit’ success story?

Can the scenario of ‘a thousand politics a minute’ be accomodated?

Can a pan-African government be utilized so that there is one voice…so that disparities that lead to civil wars can be addressed? There are muliti-generational impacts that have to be recognized and perhaps could incorporate restitution. They must somehow tame the Ghost and the Darkness.

I think that Africa can be this century’s greatest success story :-)

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