[sufyanadam]

I have to disagree with you on almost all points. I lived in East Africa for 20 years, and my observation of the African people was that their intelligence was similar to what you'd find anywhere in silicon valley. The problems you mentioned with financial services was solved way back in 1999 and rivals any mobile / cashless system anywhere else in the world, and that was long before things like square came out in the US. Other issues you mentioned such as electricity and water are the reason why you will find some of the most innovative people out there. Rather than complain about their inconvenient lack of opportunities, they think outside the box to achieve whatever they want to achieve. When everything is handed to you on a silver platter, that is what causes lower IQs, and when you have less and are constrained, that is what causes you to innovate. It's amazing to see what some of the makers there make, even the children, when they have very little, or practically nothing sometimes.

[cpursley]

I don't think people are suggesting folks in Africa have a lower IQ, they're stating that they have less training an expertise (required for this type of manufacturing). I guess the big question of this is the case is how to get people there skilled up. I wonder how China did it before becoming a manufacturing juggernaut.

[paganel]

China had a strong and very long tradition of educating the members of its administration, which I guess counted. There was of course Mao’s Cultural Revolution that tried to wipe all that tradition off, but it failed miserably.

[nickik]

Its not about intelligence. Its about suitability for highly complex multi-level, multi-faceted complex economic supply-chain and supplier system.

It requires good government, good laws, good enforcement of laws, good infrastructure, good stability and much more.

Other countries had this too and the made the necessary changes.

Some African nations did a good job many did not. Once they do they will see similar growth to East Asian countries or other.

[jariel]

I love your aspirational and positive attitude.

"Other issues you mentioned such as electricity and water are the reason why you will find some of the most innovative people out there. Rather than complain about their inconvenient lack of opportunities, they think outside the box to achieve whatever they want to achieve."

I get it - if you don't have consistent electricity you 'innovate' and I admire that a lot. But I'm sorry - you're going to need consistent electricity to do many things. It's not a 'complaint'.

There's just no way around having basic infrastructure. Also - consider that a nation that cannot get consistent electricity obviously has some deep problems. So it's partly the 'lack of electricity' - but really, it's the 'problems that cause a nation to not be able to have electricity' - those are the real underlying problems.

That said, nowhere in East Africa is going to be making electronics in any capacity any time soon.

You should also consider thy on earth you would want to do that, as it's not really a natural advantage.

I live in Canada - and we don't make many electronics either! Because it's not suited to us.

Does your President/Prime Minister have political control of the Central Bank, and the large National banks, and can he use it to make massive strategic investments in certain technologies and use it for export financing?

Do you have an attractive enough economy that you can lure international investors, and then force them to hand over their IP? Do you have the depth of Engineering talent to take the plans for an advanced European rail system, copy them, make your own train system?

Do you have a malleable a population of professionals willing to work cheap, to be servile to others and say 'yes, yes, yes' no matter what, work 7 days a week and get it done no matter what? Those are strong words, but that's China for the last 30 years, working with them, they always say 'Yes', it's always cheap, and they move extremely quickly. The results are something else to talk about, but they have a very specific kind of attitude towards work, that for better or worse, works for them. They have a strong sense of nationalist vigour like right out of the 1950's.

So if you can't have enough foundational sophisticate to do electricity, let alone those things, then as you say, with an innovative attitude you can just do something other than electronics.

Much higher value and branded goods along the lines of what Africa is doing already, i.e. going 'up market' at least on some things. Exotic produce, processed, textiles, definitely tourism and of course agriculture, probably specialised.

Think of the economy like a pyramid. If you want to build higher, you have to have a wider, and more solid base. It would be a much higher ROI for any nation to establish competent civics (ie 'base') that it would to try to develop advanced foundries.

Last note: the elite in Africa is a problem, moreover, there is no 'professional class' of owners, artisans ie tradition of highly competent people doing complicated, industrious things handing down from generation to generation. Surely there was some of this, it's just adaptable to our current version of globalism.

China has had an established bureaucracy for thousands of years. So has Europe. Africa and 'mostly' South America have not, and that is the 'social pyramid' (of competency, not just power) which is necessary as well. Though there are some obvious things about that people find unfair, it's just as unavoidable.

[ejanus]

Some of the things you said are correct. I won't dispute them but they are solvable problems.