Its been a few weeks and its been all about the dairy game,well i wish to make a post on a topic i feel so deeply about. so guys i hope you enjoy this post.

Overview

Africa poses as the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. Africa is home to more than 1.2billion people and continues to grow rapidly. This large continent lodges 54 countries,each uniquely equipped for wealth and development. This continent is home to countless civilizations,cultures and traditions and a very high linguistic diversity, there are an estimated 1500-2000 African languages. gathering appoximately 140 languages with some eleven millions speakers scattered in Central and Eastern Africa.

Africa contains an enormous wealth of mineral resources, including some of the world’s largest reserves of fossil fuels, metallic ores, and gems and precious metals. This richness is matched by a great diversity of biological resources that includes the intensely lush equatorial rainforests of Central Africa and the world-famous populations of wildlife of the eastern and southern portions of the continent. Although agriculture (primarily subsistence) still dominates the economies of many African countries, the exploitation of these resources became the most significant economic activity in Africa in the 20th century.

Amassed with huge natural deposits and riches, Africa remains the poorest continent in world,below sub standard means of livelihood,colossal numbers of unemployment,corruption,poor governance,poor health facilities and increasing crime rates are all the plagues of Africa. Millions of people in Africa survive on less than 2$ daily. Majority of the countries in Africa,majorly west Africa are still developing into the 21st century. Below are the objectives of this articles;

• What is the problem?
• What are the solutions?
• What role can decentralization and crypto currency play in eradicating poverty in Africa?

The Problem

The causes of poverty in Africa does not stem from one single source. As a developing country, Africa has a long history of external, internal and man-made forces at work to bring about the circumstances this continent suffers from today.

In sub-Saharan Africa, almost 220 million people, half the population, live in poverty. Worsened by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, cultural conflict and ethnic cleansing,and over population.

Poverty in Africa has multiple and complex causes. SIDA (2005) views these multi-dimensional causes as stemming from a lack of information, knowledge about market prices for the goods they deal in, issues related to health, availability
of public services, and their rights. There is a political minority which lacks the visibility and voice as regards the
institutions that shape their lives.Poor masses in Africa are also said to lack access to relevant skills and knowledge,
education and personal development that could improve their lives. We are going to highlight 5 major cause of extreme poverty in Africa.

Corrupt Governance

Corrupt Governance is one of the major causes of poverty in Africa,it involves the appointment of corrupt leaders who care less about the needs of the people . This malpractice has led many African leaders to push away the needs of the people. Having created the “personal rule paradigm,” where they treat their offices as a form of property and personal gain, these leaders openly appoint unqualified personnel in key positions at state-owned institutions and government departments. Most African government has turned the supposed democratic system into a personal and family business, where a single family will rule the in a democratic setting for over a decade. This type of governance affects the poorest people and leaves them vulnerable, as they are denied basic necessities such as healthcare, food and shelter and suitable drinking water.

Corruption has been and still is a major issue in the development of and fight against poverty in Africa, specifically sub-Saharan Africa. SSA is considered to be among the most corrupt places in the world. According to a survey conducted by World Anti-Corruption, corruption in Africa is “due to the fact that many people in Africa believe that family relations are more important than country identity. Therefore, those in power use bias and bribery for the gain of their relatives at the expense of their country.” Corruption costs sub Saharan countries approximately $150 billion a year in lost revenue. While some countries in Africa, such as Ghana, Tanzania and Rwanda, have made some progress in the fight against corruption, there are still many lagging very far behind. A lack of effort to solve this issue only worsens the causes of poverty in Africa today.

Illiteracy

Lack of education is also a serious issue that contributes to the causes of poverty in Africa. This absence is especially felt in sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest rates of educational exclusion. Over one-fifth of children between the ages of about six and 11 are out of school, followed by one-third of youth between the ages of about 12 and 14. Almost 60 percent of youth between the ages of about 15 and 17 are not in school.

Education for girls has become a major focus of support groups like UNICEF, UNESCO and the UIS. With poor access to school, lack of sanitary facilities and social norms like female genital mutilation and child marriage, the right to women’s education is even less of a priority in impoverished communities.

However, education, especially girls’ education, has been proven to be one of the most cost-effective strategies for promoting economic growth. According to UNICEF, “studies have shown that educated mothers tend to have healthier, better-nourished babies and that their own children are more likely to attend school; thus helping break the vicious cycle of poverty.

Conflict

conflicts can cause extreme poverty in the african soil today, Large scale,protracted violence that we see in places like Nigeria and other sub Saharan countries can grind society to a halt, destroy infrastructure, and displace thousands of families. Women often bear the brunt of conflict: during periods of violence, female-headed households become very common. And because women often have difficulty getting well-paying work and are typically excluded from community decision-making, their families are particularly vulnerable.

As an example of the poverty prone effect of dragged and small bouts of conflicts can cause, Nigeria has been terrorized for over a decade now by an Islamic group known as bokoharam, this group has displaced over 2.3 million people since May 2013, at least 250,000 have left Nigeria and fled into Cameroon, Chad or Niger. Boko Haram killed over 6,600 in 2014. This group have carried out mass abductions including the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in April 2014. Corruption in the security services and human rights abuses committed by them have hampered efforts to counter the unrest. Millions of people displaced from their from their homes have fled their country and become refugees in foreign sates sinking them into extreme poverty.

Another case in Bamenda, northwest region of Cameroon involving a separatist group fighting for freedom from the central government. The inhabitants of that area live in fear of their lives each day as gunshots heard each day. Several locals are dead as a reust ans the most have been force to relocate to new environments leading to loss of jobs and a rush decline into poverty.

Healthcare

Poor healthcare is a major cause of poverty in Africa because the poor cannot afford to purchase what is needed for good health, including sufficient quantities of quality food and healthcare itself. With a lack of education on preventing infectious diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS, as well as the costs of consultations, tests and medicine, people living in poverty are at a severe disadvantage that only perpetuates the poverty cycle.

With a strong fight against many forces still ahead of this nation, Africa must weed out the corruption and poor government, and promote strong education and efficient healthcare for all, in order to take a big leap forward in its development as a continent.

Solutions and roles of Decentralization

Remolding a continent filled with extremely poor people might seem like an impossible task but its possible if the problems are handled efficiently and strictly. Creating a better government system that cares for the people,weeding off corrupt individuals and organisations from power and creating an open and peer to peer system will promote transparency and equality on sub Saharan countries.

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Decentralized Blockchain promotes transparency in the political and banking scene.

Blockchain,can be refereed a distributed ledger technology (DLT) which enables users to store and access information or records in a shared database (the ledger). The information or records may be related to assets and holdings. The ledger has its own standards and processes and is capable of operating without a central validation system. A decentalized blockchain will power to the people unlike the traditional centralized corrupt system.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), for a bank in a developing country, a major trasperent limitation is that of insider lending, in which a high proportion of lending is likely to be provided to projects that are connected to the banks’ directors,managers,corrupt politicans and illicit projects. Indeed, insider lending is arguably a major cause of bank failure in Africa and the world at large .

A large body of research dealing with access to finance in developing countries also indicates that compared with disadvantaged groups without political connections, politically connected firms tend to enjoy better and undeserved treatment from governments or financial institutions. For instance, in China, private enterprises are treated unfavorably compared with state-owned enterprises (SOEs). A another point is that banks in many African economies are ill-prepared to fight frauds frauds, mainly due to poor management and outside interference.

Decentralized Blockchain systems would help guard against discriminatory practices. it is possible to keep a comprensive trail of transactions. In this way, accountability and transparency can be achieved in the data-exchange process. Discriminatory practices that prevent disadvantaged groups’ access to financial services cannot take place in the blockchain world. Data manipulation is practically impossible without getting caught. Blockchain can possibly prevent manipulative frauds,other major kinds of money laundry and corruption. A decentralized blockcchain will make everything happens on the rader and impossible to by pass.

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Creating a system as effective as this will create a transparent and healthy system,where corrupt leaders will be defenseless against the system,as a result funds and revenue will be evenly distributed to the rural and poor equipped communities to fight against extreme poverty, Basic needs will be provided for the people, a balanced society where jobs and wages are paid, instead of few corrupt leaders rechanelling the funds to their accomplice.(banks)

Conclusion

I believe that blockchain and the crypto sphere can change the African continent. so many projects are emerging from this rapidly growing economy and soon the governments are going to accept it.

The steemit blockcahin is one example of a promising project,i personally believe steem will make its way to the top 20 coins and blockchain based project the crypto world has ever known in over the next few years.

This post is aimed to unravel the countless struggle and the challenges the african sphere id going through and why i think decentralization is the key to a better Africa.

Special Thanks
This post is dedicated to @steemitblog and all the steemit team and everybody on steemit,my African family in this blockchain and my precious @steemalive. Lets make this home a better one, "Steem to the moon".