The Poverty Potential

James Shikwati of the African Executive writes about the opportunity in poverty "...entrepreneurship is understood to mean activities carried out by the illiterate and the uneducated. The ‘Jua Kali’ (open air market) sector predominantly focuses on modifying items for household use. The education system is designed to produce workers and not innovators. Most people follow pre-set manuals to the already existing products that may not necessarily fit the needs of the continent. Very few individuals are willing to risk and venture into the uncharted seas of economic opportunity. Arguments to the effect that the developed countries have flooded the markets of poor countries, thus stifling their creativity are not uncommon. This is by all counts a fallacy? In a continent where people fetch water from a river tens of kilometers away, children suffer malnutrition, diseases are rampant and people die of starvation every year, entrepreneurs shouldn't be a rare breed to find...The key to economic prosperity in Africa is certainly the African people. Left free to solve their own problems, free to choose solutions on their own, Africans will definitely turn poverty into opportunity. Africans must take responsibility and steer the continent to greater heights of prosperity. This can be done through resolving the twin dilemmas facing the continent on property rights issues as concerns land and facilitating a more peaceful and productive way to solve the crisis. This can be done through reverting land owned by the government to communal ownership as a transitional strategy towards individual ownership. Property ownership should be treated as sacred by law and must be respected by politicians. A greater drive towards individual ownership that respects gender, tribe and race must be prioritized...For Africa to develop, people must urgently seek to travel the least taken routes. Africans must promote intra-Africa trade in order to spur low-level production and consumption as a step towards international market entry. Africans must join Jack Shewmaker in saying “I am only interested in what I can do, not what people think I cannot do..." A successful 'Jua Kali' enterprise, CraftSkills Enterprises covered earlier is a testament to these latent possibilities.