An Africanist Perspective

An Africanist Perspective

Natural resources and economic (under)development in Africa

Unless domestic elite property rights substantially improve, the natural resource sector will not power Africa's economic takeoff

Ken Opalo's avatar
Ken Opalo
Feb 13, 2023
∙ Paid

I: Why aren’t there more African resource sector billionaires?

For a continent allegedly full of natural resources, African economies have created very little in legible productive wealth from the resource sector.1 For example, in 2019 alone the continent produced $406b in mineral exports. Yet despite such eye-popping annual flows, the confluence of perso…

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