Globalisation and the challenges of unemployment, income inequality and poverty in Africa

Abstract

There is an urgent need to re-investigate the functional relationship between globalisation, unemployment, income inequality and poverty in Africa. Unemployment accelerates the level of income inequality and poverty within a given society. In spite of the beautiful slogans associated with it, the current globalisation seems to have aggravated the problem of unemployment, the corollary of which is endemic income inequality and mass poverty in Africa. In fact, the trickle down economy pattern has consistently failed Africa. What is good for Wall Street may not necessarily be good for Africa. Viewed from any angle, the African continent seems to have been marginalised and left behind by globalisation. Capitalist globalisation undeniably, created wealth but also intensified inequality and poverty, particularly in Africa. High growth rate of Gross domestic product (GDP) may be a good statistics to parade at international conferences and seminars. However, for the hungry jobless youths in the streets, these are meaningless numbers since they do not translate into job creation or cure their hunger. Therefore, it is high time that African nations look beyond the official statistics of the so called high GDP growth rate and get down to the hard business of creating real jobs that take out the hungry, angry and jobless youths from the streets into workplaces. African countries need to develop comprehensive strategies to create jobs locally. In this paper, the current author posits that there is a strong linkage between globalisation, unemployment, income inequality and poverty in Africa. Some mechanisms were proffered to overcome these bottlenecks. Key words: Globalisation, global competition, government, inequality, poverty and unemployment.