The World Economic Forum (WEF) held its annual meeting last week. The theme of this year was “The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond.” I didn’t follow the event but I was curious to find out whether they had any Africa-related discussions. And yes, I found an article titled “How can Africa […]
Trash and Hope
You might wonder how trash and hope relate to each other. Last Saturday I watched the thriller “Trash: Thieves of Hope.” It was filmed in one of Rio’s favelas. It’s a harsh movie that confronts you with the reality of children who survive by picking up items with some residual value from humongous mounds of […]
Creating a Middle Class: The Role of Companies
A frequent comment in my interviews with executives from sub-Saharan African (SSA) companies has been, “What really drives this company is job creation… of course, we want to make money, and we do make money… but our real driver is to create employment.” I mentioned this in a previous post. But I want to bring […]
Entrepreneurial Energy
One strong impression I’ve gained during my trips to sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is that the people are full of entrepreneurial energy. Even taxi drivers are constantly thinking about what kind of business to start. Colleagues who visit the continent regularly share this impression. Just watch Christian Staedler from Warwick University in a recent talk on […]
The Rich Poor Divide in sub-Saharan Africa
One thing that struck me in Nairobi was the income gap. Neither picture is truthful. The same misconception can come from looking at country-level economic statistics unwisely. “Consumer income is one of the most important economic factors creating distance between countries,” according to my colleague Ghemawat. Simple as this may seem, it gets complicated when […]
