Questioning ‘Africa Rising’

Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, talking about Africa as the global economy’s “last frontier” at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. in August, said that those pessimistic about African prosperity and those who are celebrating Africa as a continent that is the darling of the international arena are both wrong. He said that while Africa did have some of the world’s fastest growing economies, Africa is important to the world today for much of the same reasons as during the days of the slave trade and the colonialism – namely for the exploitation of its resources. “Africa should matter as a growth pole in its own right, as a contributor to global prosperity through its own economic transformation.”