10:41 GMT 21st December 2011
Their success should be a model for Africa but the depressing fact is that the continent is in no position to take advantage of its enormous population to create opportunities. In other words, the so-called demographic dividend will elude the continent.
The reasons for this are clear.
The continent is plagued by multifarious problems, most of them man-made. For the past three decades, most African countries failed to make the right level of social investment. Rather than create an army of educated youths bubbling with ideas on how to create new opportunities, they turned out illiterates struggling for survival.
While the Mark Zuckerbergs of America changed the world they found, the youths of Africa simply became a lost generation- uneducated, jobless and hopeless.
The continent also failed to invest in health services. As a result, diseases that have been eradicated in other parts of the world continue to strike down young Africans.
It should be noted that the youthful median age is not just the outcome of high fertility rates but also a product of low life expectancy. Resources, which could have funded social investment, continue to be stolen by corrupt leaders who stash them away in foreign banks while their people languish in want.
Africa has also failed to take advantage of its natural resources to create the right conditions for youth employment. As a result, statistics showing high growth rates of up to eight per cent do not translate into improved living standards. It is only in Africa that economic growth and unemployment grow in parallel patterns.
In other parts of the world, natural resources like oil, gold, diamond and iron ore provide launching pads for prosperity. In Africa, they do not because the mineral sectors are 'enclave economies', which do not impact on the domestic economy. They use mostly expatriate staff, outsource most of the engineering jobs and in some cases keep their information technology departments offshore.
Commodities need to be processed to add value. Unfortunately, defective agreements, failed regulation and a rent-seeking elite class have ensured that Africa continues to export raw commodities. Even a country as rich as Nigeria cannot build refineries. It exports raw crude and imports refined petroleum products. It is a scenario that is not possible anywhere else in the world.
So far this year, the Nigerian government has spent $8.5bn to subsidise petroleum imports against a budgetary provision of $1.6bn. It is a classic case of the 'fool and his money are soon parted'. Whatever Nigeria makes from oil exports, it squanders on fuel imports.
The growing army of hopeless youth is a recipe for social explosion. But Africa is not a hopeless case. The litany of lost opportunities must force our leaders to re-appraise the state of the continent and take appropriate steps to build a future for its people. If they fail, they will soon face something worse than the fate of the likes of Mubarak and Ben Ali. They paid dearly for denying their people freedom.
The current African leadership may pay a higher price for denying their people food. There is still time to make the change.
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