In our interpretation and understanding of who an investor is, Africans do not count. We do not think our fellow Africans are investors.
Listen to Nigerian rulers and their commissioners. “We are wooing investors.” The photo ops are always the same: Chinese delegations in hard hats, Brazilian agribusinessmen in suits, European financiers at the villa. The cameras flash. The MOUs are signed. The headlines read: “Foreign Direct Investment.”
But where is the Ghanaian trader expanding warehouses in Kano? Where is the Kenyan fintech building in Yaba? Where is the South African manufacturer, the Senegalese agro-processor, the Beninese logistics firm? They are here, but we do not call them “investors.” We call them “traders.” We make them get 50 permits.
This mindset is parasitic and tragic, with a trace of colonial chains. It says value only comes on a plane from Beijing or Sao Paulo. It says African capital is small, risky, and unserious. So we beg outsiders while we tax, frustrate, and ignore our own.
The result is capital flight within Africa. Nigerian entrepreneurs take money to Accra, Nairobi, and Johannesburg because they are treated as investors there. Meanwhile, we celebrate a $2m Chinese loan as “development” and ignore a $2m Nigerian factory employing 200 people as “local business.”
Section 16 of our Constitution speaks of a self-reliant economy. AfCFTA promises a $3.4 trillion market. Yet we still scan the horizon for saviors with foreign accents.
Until we see the African in Lagos, in Dakar, in Harare as the primary investor, we will remain tenants in our own economy. True development starts when we stop importing investors and start respecting the ones sleeping in our hotels, driving our roads, and paying our taxes.
They are not “foreign.” They are family. And family builds first.
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bcradle@ymail.com