ABSTRACT

The image of Africa’s economy that dominated the global thinking during the early 1970s was one that though recognised the continent’s natural resource endowment and its economic potential, nevertheless concluded that issues like fiscal mis-management, corruption, institutional weaknesses and political instability would always militate against the continent’s wish of realising its full potential. The request by many African countries for IMF’s interventions into their economies further reinforced the impression that dismal mismanagement will always overshadow any impressive measure of endowment. The inability of the continent to make use of the innovativeness of its teeming youth and its massive population was seen as a further evidence that the chances of it being able to maximise its full potential was slim, at best or non-existent at worst. To be added to all these for the effective justification of Afro-pessimism was the lack of positive commitment on the part of the political leadership to effectively address national economies in ways that can harness the natural and human potential of the continent for economic growth.