ABA Publisher's Message 02

Ricky Muloweni Publisher's Message

The time and need is now for Africans living in the Diaspora to participate in the process of establishing more value-added industries in Africa! The African population has more than enough middle class families to provide an initial market for any value addition startup company. Diaspora Africans have the ability to inject an enormous jolt of funds in the African manufacturing industry with their estimated annual savings of US$53 billion. Given that some if not many Africans in the Diaspora left their countries of origin due to economic reasons, it is clearly hard for them to see themselves doing business "back home" with that historical perspective.

Africa continues to evolve. The economic woes that you left could get worse and even be overtaken by new colonialists that seem to be coming into Africa in droves under the pretext as friends protecting your continent from the West. No matter how far you go to the West you still have your families remaining in the cities and villages you grew up in. Yes, the British colonial masters where bad, but they left you, your country, your dignity and your people and gave you your 'independence.' But the new economic colonial masters are coming and offering loans to your current leaders with clauses imbedded within that surrenders part of your national land to them for generations, way past the time when you will be gone.

And, they are doing it as you read this message. So the question is “What will you do now?” Now, when you have the ability to work with your western friends, who by now consider you an equal, to invest in a small business in your home village?

Africa cannot, allow itself to lose all of the freedoms that Nyerere, Nkrumah, Kaunda, Mandela and many others bled and died for. We know the working age population of Africa is growing. Many African families are moving into middle income status in part because the Diaspora relatives are sponsoring them. With that they are also consuming “nice things.” And, the vast majority of Africa is clearly young. We all can help our youth to do great things and then enjoy our old age.

points of encouraging reference. Let’s take Aliko Dankote. He is a success having started his initial business from a $3,000 loan from his uncle. We have nephews and nieces in Africa that can use this example to start something.

West Africa is endowed with oil and gas, cocoa, gold and a population of 400 million to provide a market unlike no other. What is stopping you from acting. Not all are born entrepreneurs, that is true but we can identify the entrepreneurs among us and encourage (and invest in) them to grow businesses that will benefi t all of us.

East and Central Africa, the home of mobile money and Mpesa, continue to innovate in the mobile technology world. Diaspora-based Africans can clearly play an important role by investing in this massive resource-based region from the tourism sector to manufacturing and the processing of various teas along with other produce products.

Why does Africa have to export raw materials and import fi nished products? Need I say the words “youth unemployment.” Who coined that? It only makes sense for Diaspora-based Africans to invest resources that can grow businesses and industries that will employ the youth of Africa.

Southern Africa with its well-developed railway network can be a great test on how the Africa free trade area will work and fl ourish. With its immense natural resources and booming agriculture infrastructure, a single market will enable fi nished goods to move from South to North and East to West, unfettered.

Africans living in the Diaspora need to begin to see themselves in these business arrangements as net contributors to their communities in the countries in which they live and their country of origin.

Yes, in most cases they are so invested in their careers in the West that it becomes very hard to see positives come out of the lands that they left. Let us remember that we are of the DNA of this land and some of our people in these lands can rise as far as we enable them.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., after visiting Lagos, Nigeria, wrote in his 1961 article The Time for Freedom Has Come, “the liberation in Africa has been the greatest single international infl uence on American Negro students.” Fast forward to 2020 and the George Floyd events, what is your message to the African Students in the West about protecting and enhancing Africa's nascent economic freedom? Ricky Muloweni Publisher/President dawn@africabusinessassociation.org aba@africabisinessassociation.org www.africabusinessassociation.org

Savor the Flavors of Africa at Your Own Kitchen Table, African Cooking Made Easy www.kitchensofafrica.com

About the Africa Business Association

The Africa Business Association is an independent international business development organization. We offer access to the latest resources, information, and best practices in advocacy and communications for the African Diaspora and the African entrepreneurs in Africa.

We work to help you have access to news and events as starting points for constructive conversations and calls to action. We seek to cut through the froth of the political spin cycle to underlying truths and values. We want to be so focused on progress that together we can provide a credible and constructive generation of Africans that take seriously our previous generations and act upon all their wishes, our hopes and aspirations to make lasting change for all future generations.

Africa Business Association "DAWN"

PUBLISHER/PRESIDENT Ricky Muloweni

ADVISORY BOARD Earl 'Skip' Cooper, II, CEO, Black Business Association H.E. Sheila Siwela, Ambassador H.E. Kone L. Tanou, Ambassador

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ricky Muloweni

LAYOUT/TYPESETTING Lion Communications

AFRICA BUSINESS ASSOCIATION NEWS 6564 LOISDALE COURT, SUITE 600 Springfi eld, VA 22150 USA 1-571-278-9441 aba@africabisinessassociation.org dawn@africabusinessassociation.org www.africabusinessassociation.org

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