African Nations Need More Capitalism

Many people in the field of program and policy evaluation are hostile to capitalism. Poverty and inequality in the Global South are blamed mostly on Western capitalist exploitation, and the private sector is not trusted to lift people out of poverty (see Mathison, 2016; Picciotto, 2023). The entrepreneur Magatte Wade (2023), a native of Senegal, disagrees with this assessment, arguing that what keeps many African nations in poverty today are corrupt governments that are hostile to economic freedom and private enterprise. Greater economic freedom is what many African nations need to prosper.

Wade describes how starting a legitimate business in an African nation like Senegal is nearly impossible due to the labyrinth of laws and regulations. Creating an LLC is a months-long process requiring thousands of dollars, while in the United States the process takes minutes. Tariffs and other trade restrictions force business owners to pay up to 45 percent more for business supplies than in the US. Corrupt government officials use these regulations to extract bribes from those lucky enough to afford to pay. It is no wonder that according to the “World Bank’s Doing Business (DB) index” (p. 190), Africa has thirteen of the twenty worst nations to do business. Without entrepreneurs starting enterprises and creating wealth, there can be no poverty reduction.

Wade writes that “Not one single person can deny that if African nations provided business environments that were as effective and streamlined as those of New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, or Denmark…then Africa would become more prosperous” (p. 144). But convincing people that private property rights and the profit motive in a market economy are the key, and not a barrier, to eliminating poverty is a difficult task.

References

Sandra Mathison (2016). “Confronting Capitalism: Evaluation That Fosters Social Equity.” In Stewart Donaldson & Robert Picciotto (Eds.). Evaluation for an Equitable Society. Information Age Publishing. p. 83-107. 

Robert Picciotto (2023). Evaluation transformation implies its decolonization. Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation, 19(44). p. 131-141.

Magatte Wade (2023). The Heart of a Cheetah: How We Have Been Lied to about African Poverty—and What That Means for Human Flourishing. Cheetah Press.