ABSTRACT
More than two decades after most of the countries achieved political independence, people still have the greatest concentration of the poorest countries of the world in the corner of the globe. "Growth, Equity and Self-Reliance: Private Initiative in Africa—the Challenge of the 80's." This theme invites to focus the gaze on the economic future of Africa in general and the role of private initiative with its challenges in the 1980s in particular. Many of the countries in Africa harbor a sizable private sector. Unfortunately, while enlightened economic planners see the private sector as a premier mobile of development, many public sector functionaries in Africa permit its existence under sufferance. The role of private enterprise as an engine of growth is the key to affluence in any nation. In the world, tactfully subdued, but critical voices are calling Africans to demonstrate initiative and capability in the management of their own affairs and the solution of their own problems.
