Africa Financial State; A Deliberate Act Rather than Chance
I have always heard that Africa is a land of opportunity, well I have been hearing this since I was a child and that the westerners see our continent as a place to enrich themselves, but then I ask myself how will a continent this rich still suffer from financial issues in 2023? Africa's finance sector has been facing looming crises, with a number of challenges posing a significant threat to the continent's economic growth and stability. these crises encompass rising debt levels, currency fluctuations, and limited access to financial services, to mention a few. One pressing challenge facing Africa is the issue of debt. The way our leaders go to borrow money like we do not have any resources to export and receive payment from, or we are not taxed is very alarming. There are so many countries in Africa countries that are rich in oil, titanium, and many radiative elements not even mentioning precious metals, so then I ask myself why don't we use what we have to grow ourselves rather than borrow, but our government prefers to borrow what we can't pay, so they can declare us bankrupt at the end of the day. When you ask them why they borrow in recent times, they give excuses like weak economic growth, high expenditure, government spending, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another issue facing African Countries is currency fluctuation. You can imagine that a country has different rates to the dollar at different markets. In Nigeria, there is the CBN rate, Commercial Bank rates, Aboki Rate, and the Parallel market (Bureau the change). Then you ask yourself why these enormous markets have different values for the same currency.
Well, in all this I am very optimistic that these challenges can be overcome over time, I believe that if several countries can implement policies to reduce debt levels, invest in infrastructure to improve financial services, and work to promote financial literacy across the continent for both citizens and government officials. It is so painful that there are so many Africans holding positions in world financial organizations including the world bank and then I ask why they are not using that same skill in Africa where it is needed. With Rising Technology, We hope that Africa's financial market will improve drastically. Although there are services like Mobile banking, Mobile money, and so on but then I hope hat using the blockchain and cryptocurrency will help put transparency in the government and government fraud will be reduced completely.