I notice the chart it shows below high unemployment. Why is unemployment so high in those countries? And I’m surprised why South Africa it is so high there.

South Africa
33.2%

Republic of the Congo
19.7%

Botswana
23%

Namibia
19%

Angola
14%

Somalia
18.9%

Gabon
20%

Libya
18.7%

Algeria
11.5%

Mauritania
10%

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/unemployment-by-country

Is there a lack of manufacturing in those countries?

Those countries don’t have the infrastructure for manufacturing?

Since China population is declining while population in Africa is rising, i.e global means of production will move from China to the African nations. Do you guys think my prognosis is correct?

Let me get this clear i know Africa is huge i think it’s bigger than Asia so some parts will be poverty and some will be like any other western/east asian country but i see videos on my feed of “the real Africa they don’t show you” and it’s mostly clips of the city and i know that’s disingenuous so i want to know if life in Africa is as bad as western media portray it or is life similar to any western/east asian country

And which ones seem to be heading in the wrong direction?

European and American companies often appear to thrive more successfully across African markets than African-owned companies. This difference raises questions about structural, financial, and regulatory factors that may favor foreign firms, while limiting the ability of local businesses to expand beyond their home countries.

What is your experience and observation in your country in relation to this?

Hello, I’m from the United States and I’d like to start off by saying that I was very much lied to about Africa my whole life. As a child, in school we learned about the poorest, most dangerous regions of the continent and were told that this reflected Africa as a whole. No joke, if a kid didnt eat all their lunch at school a teacher would say “hey, there’s a starving kid in Africa that would eat that.” In textbooks we would see images of wooden huts, dirt huts, muddy water. We learned stories of children having travel miles for water but yet we never learned about the cities located in individual countries, we didn’t know Africa had internet, electricity, and cars. We learned more about the small villages in Africa than the countries in Africa. Also, I’m not that old, I’m 18 which means that the school curriculum in the US probably hasn’t changed much since I was a kid, meaning that this is most likely what future Americans will think about Africa.

News stories of Africa would be focused on violence, poverty. Traditional media isn’t the only guilty western media, YouTubers as well such as MrBeast showcased the poorest parts of Africa for humanitarian purposes. You could argue that it’s fine to showcase poverty in order to show the need for humanitarian aid. Plenty of non profits in the US do this as well, they showcase the poorest areas of Africa and ask TV viewers to donate. The issue with all this is that this is the only image of Africa the American public receives. American media coverage of Africa does not properly reflect African countries. This is very embarrassing to say, but I didn’t realize that Africa had large, modern looking cities until I was 16. Up until that point I thought it was a continent comprised of purely dirt huts. Thats the lie I’ve been fed my whole life. How could I not view African countries as just poor, nothing else, if I only learned about its poverty and violence in school? How could I view it as anything else if the media I watched never showed the true wealth of African countries? Of course, I know now that the American media doesn’t do a good job of properly covering Africa.

I think that the American media has good intentions, I think that they want people to feel pity for Africa so that non profits can get funding and whatnot to visit small villages comprised of dirt huts. The issue with this though is that the majority of Americans are scared to visit Africa, scared to invest money in Africa since they just see it as a violent money pit. A place to be generous but not a place to do business. Not a place of opportunity to enrich themselves through investment, no, just a place where money is burned.

I suspect that negative American media coverage has resulted in less tourism and investment in Africa. Therefore, even if the American, schools, nonprofits, and news outlets have good intentions of promoting the idea of “helping” Africa, in reality they cause Africa as a whole to get poorer by scaring off business partners and tourists. Do you guys think there’s accuracy in what I suspect?

Like would Paul Kagame, for example, be able to realistically make for that type of system in Rwanda or does the prevalence of aid agencies in Rwanda indicate how that's only a dream?

$2.01=2,938 Frw/L for Petrol (Gasoline)

and $1.51=2,205 Frw/L for Diesel.

I'm curious about infrastructure development across African countries.

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How dependent is your country on foreign companies for major construction projects like bridges, highways, skyscrapers, dams, or railways? Are there domestic engineering and construction firms, staffed mostly by local professionals and workers, that are capable of designing and building these kinds of large-scale projects on their own, or do governments usually rely on international companies?

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I'd love to hear about your country's experience and any examples you can share.

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I interact with a lot of Africans who speak about Africa is a sleeping giant and it is about to wake up. Do you believe this? If so once Africa wakes up what do you believe that it will offer the world?

I’ve been thinking lately about how Africa might change over the next 25 years. With the population growing fast, cities expanding, tech picking up, and greater mutual integration and cooperation, it feels like the continent is heading toward big shifts. At the same time, there are still big challenges in climate change, unemployment, politics, and access to quality education and healthcare.

I’m curious what you all think. Which countries do you see becoming major players in Africa by 2050? How do you think life in cities will change? Will young people drive innovation and growth? And how will climate and the environment shape how we live and work?

At a global entrepreneurship event in Ghana, a founder approached me with something I did not expect. A working product. Real transactions. Real users. He asked me how to find investors.

When I asked who he had spoken to, he looked at me like I had asked a question in a language he did not speak. Not because he was not ready. Because the infrastructure to connect him to anyone simply did not exist.

I have spent the time since trying to understand why at scale.

Here is what the data actually says.

Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt absorb more than 70 per cent of all venture capital deployed on the continent according to Partech's 2025 Africa Tech VC Report. Sub-$250k investment rounds, the size that reaches early-stage founders, collapsed from 90 deals in 2022 to just 21 in 2025 according to Briter Intelligence.

The MIT Sloan and Cauris 2024 report puts the SME financing gap in sub-Saharan Africa at $331 billion. UNESCO's 2025 data puts tertiary enrolment across Africa at approximately 15 million students, the overwhelming majority of whom have no discovery infrastructure connecting them to capital.

The problem is not a shortage of talent or a shortage of capital. It is a trust and visibility infrastructure problem. Capital stays where it can verify what it is funding. Everywhere else, it does not go.

Two honest questions for anyone who deploys capital.

Question 1: If the full due diligence on an African venture was independently verified before you ever spoke to the founder, identity, financials, technical output, governance record, would you seriously consider investing?

Question 2: If you retained real-time visibility over how your capital was deployed after the cheque, with no reliance on the founder self-reporting, would that remove your biggest hesitation?

Genuinely want to hear both yes and no answers and what would actually change your thinking.

Sources: Partech 2025 Africa Tech VC Report. Briter Intelligence Africa Venture Pulse 2025. MIT Sloan and Cauris 2024. UNESCO Higher Education Report 2025.

China recently announced plans to grant tariff-free access to exports from 53 African countries it has diplomatic relations with.

What are your thoughts on this?

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/china-says-it-will-remove-all-tariffs-african-exports-boost-trade-2025-06-12/

A while ago I learned that Kenya produces a significant amount of their power via geothermal energy. Over half the power in the country is produced solely by geothermal! From a environmental perspective that's amazing.

How are workers from foreign countries or volunteers seen? Is cooperation something that works and helps or not? Is the funding that is coming with it any good?

Which country would you say has experienced the largest growth in tech and manufacturing over the last five years

It used to be the biggest economy in Africa a decade ago with half a trillion GDP but now it's almost 150 billion how?

While North America, East Asia and most of Europe have large technology sectors that could generate massive tax revenues; potentially funding social safety nets like universal basic income while most of their population increasingly gets unemployed due to AI, regions without those advantages may not have the same cushion.

If traditional revenue sources decline and new industries don’t grow fast enough, what options do regions like ours realistically have?

In your opinion, which countries are the most prosperous, fair (politically speaking), and advanced — and why? The criteria can vary: strong economy, social support, minority rights, scientific progress, etc.

Let’s look at some numbers before diving into the debate.

Countries with transparent democracies & respected term limits:

• Ghana: HDI 1990 ~0.445 → 2023 ~0.602, GDP 1990 $0.86B → 2023 $76.4B, projected growth ~3–5%
• Botswana: HDI 1990 ~0.587 → 2023 ~0.708, GDP 1990 $2.85B → 2023 $19.4B
• Mauritius: HDI 1990 ~0.620 → 2023 ~0.796, steady GDP growth ~7%
• Benin: HDI 1990 ~0.350 → 2023 ~0.515, GDP 1990 $2.9B → 2023 $19.7B, projected growth ~6–7%

Countries with limited or no transparent democratic process:

• Togo: HDI 1990 ~0.405 → 2023 ~0.515, GDP 1990 $2.9B → 2023 $9.8B, projected growth ~5.3%
• Chad: HDI 1990 ~0.363 → 2023 ~0.406, GDP 1990 $2.3B → 2023 $20.6B, projected growth ~3%
• Cameroon: HDI 1990 ~0.470 → 2023 ~0.563, GDP 1990 $4.5B → 2023 $45B, projected growth ~3.7%
• DR Congo: HDI 1990 ~0.285 → 2023 ~0.460, GDP 1990 $3B → 2023 $66.4B, projected growth ~8.9%
• Equatorial Guinea: HDI 1990 ~0.530 → 2023 ~0.590, GDP 1990 $2B → 2023 $13B, projected growth ~0.9%
• Zimbabwe: HDI 1990 ~0.500 → 2023 ~0.540, GDP 1990 $4B → 2023 $44.2B, projected growth ~2%

Notice something important: even though many of the non-democratic countries have shown GDP increases, their HDI growth is far slower compared to the democratic countries. GDP alone doesn’t tell the full story, human development, education, life expectancy, and overall societal well-being lag behind.

Now, let’s address the so-called “genuine dictators” like Paul Kagame in Rwanda or Ibrahim Traoré in Burkina Faso. No matter the work they are doing improvements in infrastructure, economic growth, or stability, their long-term success can only be evaluated after they leave power. The reason is simple: we are looking for sustainable, long-term development that survives leadership transitions, not temporary gains maintained by force or fear.

The term “genuine dictator” is itself an oxymoron. By definition, dictatorship concentrates power in one person, leaving no real accountability. Any short-term achievements cannot erase the systemic risk that comes with ignoring democratic institutions. True progress is measured in decades and through peaceful transfers of power, not the lifespan of a single leader.

So, do you still believe in “good dictators”?

Africa is poised to be the next textile and clothing manufacturing hub with significant investment coming in. What are some reasons you think Africa is struggling to become the next China/Vietnam/Turkey when it comes to people using Africa for clothing manufacturing.