Africa's Time is Now

African nations are beginning to take responsibility for Africa – instead of looking for handouts from the West. Africa’s economy is growing faster than that of any other continent.

However, there are 50-plus countries in Africa, so the growth needs to be looked at country by country to get an accurate understanding of what is happening in Africa.

African economies are synergistic. To look at Africa in a fractured light is to miss the dynamism of the whole. China certainly has not made that mistake. Presently, China has trade agreements with every country in Africa.

One example of the growth of the African economy is the explosion of mobile telephone usage across Africa. The Praekelt Foundation has focused on this phenomenon (www.praekeltfoundation.org ) and thus has become an incubator on mobile technology which improves the health and well-being of millions of African people living in poverty. There are now more than 450 million hand phones in use in Africa, almost one for every two people in Africa.