By Udoh James Akpan
Africans had always been comfortable with their kind of business and occupation which involved farming, fishing, animal husbandry, etc. In other words, Africa was an agrarian economy with nuclear family members as owners and employees; it was essentially for family subsistence, and the left overs sold.
Then came the Europeans in their search of raw materials for their Europe-based businesses and trade, and also eventually manpower. This culminated in Africa being a continent with a past that is muddled in slave trade.
Then these Europeans, not been satisfied with slave trade, introduced colonialism to take control of governance structures in Africa, and then roll out their economic agenda to explore, mine and exploit all kinds of resources in respective African countries ranging from oil and solid minerals to forestry and cash crop to feed businesses in European cities.
It can therefore be argued that most of the big businesses in Europe with long history actually became big through exploitation of raw materials from African continent. Big business is very important in any economy.
Big business involves large-scale corporate-controlled financial or business activities. As a term, it describes activities that run from huge transactions to the more general doing big things. In corporate jargon, the concept is commonly known as enterprise that are involved in activities that generate value through their transactions, industrialisation that generate employment and revenue that pays big corporate taxes to government which is needed for capital expenditures.
Some of these businesses become so big that they become multinational corporations (MNC) or multinational Enterprises (MNE) which is a company that operates in multiple countries, maintaining a global strategic system and often having headquarters in one country while having operations in others.
These MNC and MNE have become part of the economic philosophy of countries from other continents as they not only contribute to the Gross National Product (GNP) of their home countries, they have become a source of influence for them in the international system. They operate in critical sectors of African economy and contribute the concept and continuation of neo-colonialism.
However, it is now time for Africa to wean herself from the subsistence and small holding business mentality and grow big business so as to maximise her potentials. Africa has the size, the population for market and the resources to encourage big businesses to thrive.
The above diagram tells an important story of Africa in terms of geographical size. Africa has a market size of 55 countries, 1.3 billion people, 60% world arable land to feed almost the entire planet, over 30 % of world mineral reserves, 35% of critical minerals essential for electronics, Artificial Intelligent (AI) hardware and renewable energy.
In addition, Africa has created African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) agreement with combined GDP valued at 4.3 trillion dollars. This is not a poor continent, it is a valuable market for global goods and services, and an exporter of goods and services to the world. This is why Africa needs big business to exploit its own resources for continental and inter-continental trade and grow the prosperity of Africans.
The above diagram shows the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of the African continent spread across various countries. The continent is large enough to attract both indigenous and foreign investors, but the emphasis should be on home grown businesses that will become big and change the narrative about Africa. The continent must present herself and tell her growth story on development, innovation and investment opportunities for brighter economic tomorrow with projections of ability to harness the momentum for a prosperous future.
The above diagram does not tell a good story especially for the large countries and large economies. It is important to note that small countries with high GDP per capita is because of small population, and not necessarily economic activities of big businesses in the respective countries. This continent needs more big businesses like Dangote Group and Access Bank from Nigeria; MTN and Standard Bank from South Africa; Arab Contractor from Egypt. There are development banks in Africa that can structure capital and finances to promote big businesses through commercial banks.
What is needed to achieve big businesses in Africa are visionary politicians. African politics is holding African businesses down. The problem is the political recruitment process in Africa into public and elective offices. This is the Rubicon Africa must cross to reach the promise land.
