Closer to the Reality: An Opinion on Africa’s Industrialization Drive

Abstract

The return to economic normalcy is predicted to be a mystery tour. Economies must be intentional about their effort to restore economic recovery and must be done expeditiously. A common channel to maintain a resilient economy and promote growth is industrialization. Unfortunately, the story is Africa on the subject, despite wide coverage in research, seems stunted. In this paper, we express our opinion on the subject highlighting the essence of “intentional” effort as key to the industrialization process. We raise awareness that the most successful path to economic development is through industrialization and that it is only achievable through conscious efforts. We limit our discussions to a few selected policies and strategies premised on their unique importance to the debate, in our opinion. We show that numerous policies have been unsuccessful due to a “lack of intentional and deliberate efforts” and a failure to give ample time to the process. For each policy we discuss, we demonstrate that a bold, aggressive, and “whatever-it-takes” approach will yield thriving results.