Why Industrialization Failed in Africa

Manufacturing and industrialization helped propel the economies of countries such as Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand etc. But sadly, countries in Sub Saharan Africa experienced limited manufacturing success and the continent remains the least industrialized. The manufacturing sector in Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole makes up only 12 percent of the continent’s total GDP. In contrast, the manufacturing sector in East Asia and the Pacific, contributes over 20 percent to the region’s total GDP. Manufacturing failed mainly due to a combination of poor infrastructure, and weak bureaucracy, which led to bad policy making. And because of the low industrialization rate, poverty rates remain high and the majority of people in many African countries still live in rural areas and are self employed in agriculture. In this video I discuss in more details why manufacturing never took off in Africa and why there is an opportunity for Africans in the diaspora to fill the gap. That is because, due to several structural reasons, large institutional investors have mostly stayed away from the continent, thus creating a void that small investors like those in the diaspora can step in and fill. Timeline: 0:00 - Intro 1:45 - Low industrialization in Africa and its consequences 4:28 - Why manufacturing failed to take off in Africa 10:58 - Opportunity for the diaspora to step in More reading: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/h...