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Welcome
to AFRICABIZ, 
Welcome
to AFRICABIZ HTML Email edition. Previous issue available at this
link
Dear faithful reader,
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THE STUPID DIVE TO HELL OF ONCE PROSPEROUS AFRICAN COUNTRIES
"There
is no poor African country...Only lack of imagination and mismanagement..."
is boldly written on the homepage of Africabiz
Online Global.
The current article, in addition to several others listed on previous links,
illustrate further that assertion.
In this article
the causes behind the collapse of Ivory
Coast were briefly exposed. Ivory Coast was the driving force of economic
development in French speaking west Africa, for three decades running; and is
now, at the end of year 2002, engulfed in political turmoil. The per capita Gross
National Product (GNP) nose dived from US$ 1,200 (1993) to US$ 600 (2002). If
the current crisis continue
to worsen, no doubt that the GNP decline will sharpen.
Since
three years, the international community witnessed with amazement and bewilderment
the erratic land reform performed by Zimbabwe's Mugabe.
Now, at the end
of year 2002, came the time of reckoning: Zimbabwe is hit by famine; fuel shortage,
skyrocketed inflation and global economic decay.
Sad. Isn't? To
see Zimbabwe and Ivory
Coast, two African countries, which used to stand as regional economic powers
to be now on dire straits.
Zimbabwe's Mugabe is blaming persisting drought
in Southern Africa for the famine. Ivory Coast's Gbagbo is claming that invading
forces and "terrorists" from neighboring countries are the war mongers
who are debasing his country.
They are both wrong. The real causes
behind the sad collapse of these two once prosperous countries is just plain mismanagement
and lack of imagination to solving political, social and economic problems.
It is obvious that land reform to empowering Zimbabwe's black farmers
is an absolute necessity. That reform, however, could have been planned and performed
with sagacity to protecting the existing and efficient agricultural structure
developed by Zimbabwe's white farmers.
In the contrary, Robert Mugabe
led a demagogic policy of land invasion and seizure, which doubtless played a
great part in the current state of famine and economic chaos existing in Zimbabwe
at the end of year 2002.
One could wonder why the land reform remained
dormant for quite 23 years (since the independence day) to be suddenly addressed
in a manner of improvisation, confusion and snafu. It is clear that Zimbabwe's
ruling party, under the leadership of Mugabe, acted just to satisfy the interests
of a gang, which only target is to hang on to power; disregarding, first, the
detrimental economic and social cost to the country; and second, subsequent damage
done to Africa's image and standing vis-à vis the international community
of investors.
| According
to 1998's census, which partial result is reported in the
table at the right side of this paragraph, one quarter of Ivory Coast population
of 16,000,000 people is composed of migrants from Burkina Faso and other surrounding
African countries like Mali, Senegal, Togo, Benin. The majority (61%) of these
migrants are from Burkina Faso. Click
here for Countries briefs. |
|
Foreigners in Ivory Coast |
| Burkina
Mali: Guinea:
Ghana:
Benin:
Niger:
Nigeria:
| 2.3m
792,260 230,390
133,220 107,500
102,220 101,360 | | Furthermore,
from the end of 19th century up to 1949, the current territories of Ivory Coast
and Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) were merged into a single entity under the colonial
power of France.
Therefore a large number of people from Upper Volta
(Burkina Faso) were already established in the current territory of Ivory Coast
and particularly in the northern region when the split occurred.
These
"migrants" have been encouraged to stay, after the split, by the open-door
policy staged by president Houphouet
Boigny, Ivory Coast's founding father.
The children of these migrants,
born in the "new" Ivory Coast and their fathers established since more
than 50 years, considered themselves Ivorian citizens. They used to cast votes
under the rule of Houphouet Boigny. They contributed very significantly to the
fantastic development of Ivory Coast's agriculture and to the so called "Economic
Miracle", which put Ivory Coast into the driving seat of economic development
in West Africa.
Came to power the heir
to Houphouet, who, in order to eliminate a rival from the political game, coined
the so called Ivoirité concept, which bans anyone whose parents are not
both "pure" Ivorian to run for president office. Click
here for more.
What did they really expected those behind the Ivoirité
concept? Have they really analyzed the full implication of their decision?
It was obvious that the implementation of the concept, owing to the composition
of the population, as above briefly explained, was clearly portent of troubles
and civil unrest.
The migrants and their Mohammedans brothers in
religion represent at least 50 % of the population of Ivory Coast. It was obvious
that they were not going to accept to become second class citizens. They remained
patient for one decade from 1993 to 2002; and finally they reached the conclusion
that the only way to regain full citizenship was to engineer a rebellion.
Hence the upheaval of September 19, 2002, which led to the split of the country
into two territories as here
explained.
Only have been surprised by the tragic course of events
occurring since September 19, 2002 in Ivory Coast those who, light heartily, coined
the Ivoirité concept. The whole world warned them far in advance of the
looming disaster.
Both examples, the collapse of Zimbabwe and Ivory
Coast, clearly illustrate how a misleading concept or dogma can bear devastating
consequences.
These sad events confirm what we wrote in a
a previous delivery dedicated
to "Misleading Economic Dogma And Myths To Be Discarded In Africa"
i.e.:
"In order to make the right decision, any decision maker,
at government or corporate level, is better equipped if he starts his thinking
process with sound, basic, flawless assumptions and concepts.
False
beliefs, politically correct majority opinion or plain baseless theoretical concepts
and assumptions, can lead the best manager to making the wrong analysis and taking
bad decisions, which consequences may prove devastating to the long term profit
making potential and prosperity of his corporate or country."
Two relatively prosperous African countries, once regional economic powers,
are now on the verge of total collapse for the greed, lack of imagination and
mismanagement by incompetent politicians.
"CONTRIBUTOR'S
GUIDELINES" are
available here. You are invited
to contribute to AFRICABIZ ONLINE MONTHLY ISSUE - with articles related to
"How Africa Could Bridge The Developing Gap".
Many
thanks for subscribing to Africabiz. See you on December 15, 2002.
Dr. B.M. Quenum
Click here for contact & support console
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| Business
Opportunities
TROPICAL
FRUIT INDUSTRY AS INCOME BUILDING POWER FOR AN AFRICAN COMMUNITY / PART IX: PINEAPPLE
AGRIBUSINESS PRACTICES
Pineapple agribusiness is a cultivation which requires a lot of agricultural
technicality. Pineapple cultivation's yield and therefore the production cost
of one kilogram of pineapple per hectare depends heavily on how the plantation
had been taken care of.
Production cost of one kilogram originated from
manual cultivated and rainfed plot is different from a mechanical and irrigated
one. Furthermore one hectare plot submitted to good fertilization
efficient pest control gives the highest yield, which can go from 40 metric tons
of pineapple fruit to up to 65 metric tons.
In table blow is reported investment estimate to producing one Kg of fruit
per hectare:
|
PRODUCTION COST PER KILOGRAM AND PER HECTARE |
| Yields
- metric tons |
40 |
45 |
50 |
55 |
60 |
65 |
| Total
cost of production (ready for transport to harbor) |
7,715 |
7,715 |
7,715 |
7,715 |
7,715 |
7,715 |
| Cost
of production per Kg (ready for transport to harbor) |
.193 |
.171 |
.154 |
.140 |
.129 |
.119 |
For
details about the several items in Production Costs please visit following link.
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