• Nigeria and Egypt take the lead as Africa's biggest economies, each boasting a GDP of $477 billion.
• Ethiopia and Kenya showcase rapid growth and innovation, drawing foreign investments and leading in tech-driven industries.

Amidst the ever-changing economic landscape of Africa, a select group of nations rises above the rest. They hold the key to shaping Africa's economic destiny. Their influence reverberates across the region, attracting investments and spearheading regional development. Join us on a journey of discovery as we uncover the economic powerhouses driving Africa's growth and influencing its economic trajectory.

1. Nigeria - $477 Billion: Nigeria's GDP of $477 billion crowns it as the largest economy in Africa. The nation's rapid growth in the financial sector and its leadership in petroleum exports fuel its economic might. Lagos, a burgeoning tech hub and the second-largest metropolitan area in Africa, further amplifies Nigeria's regional influence.

2. Egypt - $477 Billion: With a GDP of $477 billion, Egypt shares the top spot with Nigeria. Its economy boasts diverse industries, from tourism and agriculture to textiles and petroleum. Egypt's strategic location at the crossroads of Africa and the Middle East enhances its significance on the continent.

3. South Africa - $406 Billion: As a financial hub and industrial leader, South Africa commands a GDP of $406 billion. Its wealth of mineral resources and well-established industries attract global investments and drives economic growth in the region.

4. Algeria - $192 Billion: With abundant oil and natural gas reserves, Algeria's petrochemical industry contributes to its $192 billion GDP. This positions Algeria as a major economic force in North Africa.

5. Morocco - $134 Billion: Boasting a $134 billion GDP, Morocco shines as a rising star in North Africa. Its vibrant tourism and agriculture sectors, coupled with investments in renewable energy and industrialisation, bolster its economic standing.

6. Ethiopia - $127 Billion: Ethiopia's $127 billion GDP is fueled by a flourishing agricultural and manufacturing sector. As one of the fastest-growing economies, Ethiopia attracts foreign investments and nurtures a burgeoning middle class.

7. Kenya - $113 Billion: With a GDP of $113 billion, Kenya's innovative tech sector and business-friendly environment contribute to its economic success. Nairobi, a vibrant tech and business hub, hosts the African offices of global giants, amplifying Kenya's regional influence.

8. Angola - $107 Billion: Angola's focus on oil production and diamond mining supports its $107 billion GDP, establishing it as a significant player in Southern Africa. Efforts to diversify its economy are fostering growth and development.

9. Tanzania - $75.71 Billion: Tanzania's $75.71 billion GDP is propelled by thriving tourism, agriculture, and mining industries. Strategic ports and potential in natural gas contribute to Tanzania's expanding influence in East Africa.

10. Ghana - $72.84 Billion: With a $72.84 billion GDP, Ghana's stable political climate and flourishing industries, including cocoa production, mining, and oil exploration, garner global attention and contribute to the nation's economic strength.

Source: Trading Economics

China has agreed to forgive interest-free loans to 17 African countries as it seeks to dispel debt-trap allegations, but sceptics say that the days of Beijing writing off interest-bearing loans are over.

With African economies under severe strain from surging commodity prices and the tailwinds of Covid-19, hopes were high when Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, took the stage for a major African debt announcement in August.

With a pomp not seen before in debt talks, Wang said Beijing had forgiven 23 interest-free loans to 17 African countries. He noted that the loans had matured, but remained tight-lipped about the total value and their recipients.

For cash-strapped African economies, many of whom count China as their largest bilateral creditor, the news that outstanding balances on Chinese government loans would be cancelled was well received. Around half of the continent is either in debt distress or at risk of it, with debt as a percentage of GDP worryingly high. All told, the world’s poorest countries – many of them in Africa – are facing $35bn in debt-service payments in 2022. Around 40% of that total is owed to China, according to the World Bank.

However, while interest-free loan forgiveness could make a difference to Africa’s very poorest nations, it does not come as much of a surprise. In fact, no-interest loans make up a sliver of China’s lending to the continent. Some African governments even treat them as grants.

While the pageantry around the announcement could indicate an attempt by Beijing to tackle allegations of “debt-trap diplomacy”, analysts say it is unlikely to have an impact on China’s interest-bearing loans. And the current negotiations over Zambia’s debt obligations do not suggest Chinese banks are in a particularly forgiving mood.

Chinese lending to Africa peaked in 2016 at $29.5bn. By then it had already fuelled an infrastructure boom across the continent. As the leading external financier of infrastructure in Africa, Beijing built or upgraded 10,000km of railway, 100,000km of highway, 1,000 bridges and 100 ports, according to Chatham House, not to mention power plants, hospitals and schools. Kenya has Africa’s first urban expressway and a standard-gauge railway linking Nairobi and Mombasa thanks to Chinese credit.

Lauren Johnston, a professor at the University of Sydney’s China Studies Centre, says Chinese lending on the continent was initially underpinned by tumbling interest rates following the global financial crisis and a search for new markets, as well as a desire by Beijing to foster global development.

Today, she says, there’s a more immediate challenge in having to “manage a loan portfolio in the presence of global tensions and post-pandemic economic challenges.”

According to AidData, a research lab, interest-free loans account for less than 5% of the $843bn in Chinese loan commitments to 165 governments globally between 2000 and 2017. In the past two decades, China has written off at least $3.4bn of debt, almost all interest free loans to African countries, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University.

They are considered part of China’s largesse in Africa, comparable to Beijing’s recent construction of Zimbabwe’s new parliament or a Lusaka’s state of the art conference centre, which came at no cost to either southern African country.

“Beijing has been doing debt write-offs of interest-free loans for 22 years,” says Deborah Brautigam, director of the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins. “These interest-free loans come from China’s central government budget and have already been completely accounted for, like grants and unlike bank loans.”

While the write-offs are not new, experts say the pomp around the announcement is, reflecting Beijing’s frustration with allegations of debt-trap diplomacy, particularly from the US.

Both the Trump and Biden administrations have accused Beijing of deliberately lending to countries it knows cannot meet their obligations for political leverage, for instance to prompt a vote in China’s favour at the United Nations General Assembly or smooth the way for a well-placed Chinese port. A 2020 State Department document warned directly of China’s “predatory development programme and debt-trap diplomacy.”

Harry Verhoeven, senior researcher at Columbia University in New York, says the accusation does not hold water. In Djibouti, Uganda and South Sudan, which are often touted as possible debt trap victims, there is no evidence of Beijing making any such requests, he argues.

That has not stopped China from pushing to change the narrative. “It’s very clear that now, being on the receiving end of this kind of language for four or five years, Beijing is really quite irked by all of this,” Verhoeven says. “There is a felt need to push back and to actually show parts of African public opinion – perhaps even globally – that China is not the bogeyman the US and some of its Western allies are trying to make it out to be.”

During Kenya’s tense presidential election in August, winner William Ruto made Chinese debt a political football, vowing to publish secretive government contracts with Beijing and put an end to his predecessor’s excessive borrowing. Beyond the continent, Sri Lanka’s mounting public debt, some of it owed to China, led tens of thousands of Sri Lankans to storm the presidential palace in Colombo in July, perhaps worrying indebted African governments. Sri Lanka defaulted on its $47bn external debts last year.

Beijing dismisses the debt-trap claims as a hollow attempt by the US to reduce Chinese influence in Africa and boost its own. In August Wang condemned America’s “zero-sum Cold War mentality”.

While Hannah Ryder, chief executive of Development Reimagined, an African development consultancy in Beijing, has described interest-free loans as “the lowest-hanging fruit”, interest-bearing loans, which account for the vast majority of China’s lending, are quite another story.

Commercial loans can be restructured or reprofiled, but are almost never considered for cancellation, analysts say. Rather than coming through the government’s foreign aid programme, they go through China’s banks, which insist on being repaid. And with the Chinese economy stagnating somewhat compared to a decade ago, due in part to Beijing’s “zero-Covid” strategy, which shut down whole cities, that is unlikely to change.

“Chinese banks are reluctant to cancel or reduce the principal on bank loans inside China; doing this abroad would be unpopular among Chinese citizens,” says Brautigam. “Chinese banks want to be repaid in full.” In recent years China has reorientated its economy and is paying more attention to domestic and regional affairs. The boom times for African governments seeking Chinese loans appear to be over.

“Given the global economic winds that we see at the moment it’s important for Chinese lending institutions to be able to recoup much of the money they have made available to others,” says Verhoeven.“There was a time when China could just write off these things and say keep the change. Those days are over.” In fact, in the last couple of years Chinese lending to Africa has decreased significantly.

Johnston is open-minded about long-run prospects for debt relief. “Perhaps, far down the track [China] may offer debt relief,” she says, “[but] my sense is that China will first endure a long period of re-scheduling until ideally the loans are repaid.”

While expectations of write-downs or haircuts on interest-carrying loans are low, many see Zambia, which became the first African country to default on its debt during the coronavirus pandemic, as a vital test of how much debt relief China will be willing to stomach.

Most of Africa’s debts to China are owed by five countries – Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia – some of whom are seeking to reduce their reliance on Chinese loans in the future.

Zambia owes roughly $17bn to a combination of multilateral lenders, commercial bondholders and sovereign creditors, and a third of it to China. The country is requesting $4.8bn in debt relief over the next three years. Debt restructuring is being handled through the Common Framework for Debt Treatments, set up in 2020 by the G20 cohort of wealthy countries.

Restructuring got off to a slow start, with some blaming China for the delay, which Beijing denies. Yet the second meeting resulted in a breakthrough commitment, allowing the International Monetary Fund to sign off on a $1.3bn lending programme. In July, Zambia’s finance ministry announced it was cancelling $2bn of undisbursed loans from external creditors, $1.6bn of them from Chinese banks.

China initially wanted to eschew the Common Framework altogether, Beijing’s ambassador to Zambia said in August, before a call between President Xi Jinping of China and President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia convinced China to join the talks. Many have been surprised by China’s willingness to negotiate in the face of its first debt crisis.

Still, negotiations remain tense. Analysts say China favours extending maturities over write-downs, even though Zambia’s finance minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane, told journalists in September that “the choice between haircuts and stretching the repayment period… is a matter of negotiations.” He added that some creditors “will choose to have their money faster” while others would opt for repayment over a longer period.

While Zambia is a useful test case, Verhoeven is wary of extrapolating it to the rest of the continent. “Zambia is pretty exceptional in terms of the composition of its debt, its important role as a copper producer, its history of defaults,” he says. “Zambia is not representative of the average African country and its debt profile, which is part of the reason I think why China has been willing to be, by Chinese standards, quite generous.”

After dropping out of high school, Ibrahim Musa, a small business owner based in Ghana, has become somewhat of a serial entrepreneur. With stints in everything from cold stores, car sales and, most recently, selling electronic goods in Makola Market, the country’s busiest local market, his biggest challenge is actually in the digital sphere.

For years, Musa has faced a major snag when it comes to opening a bank account for his small business due to the many regulations involved.

“Every time I try and open a bank account, I am asked for so many documents that I simply do not have. After being rejected several times, I just decided to use mobile money for my banking needs but that is very limited because you cannot have access to the full range of services traditional banks offer and that is a real problem for entrepreneurs like me,” says Musa.

He is not wrong. The problem he speaks of affects over 500 million people across sub-Saharan Africa who do not have, amongst other things, proof of official identity documents. This is according to a 2017 article by the World Economic Forum. The knock-on effect of this problem is that it has led to over 350 million adults being financially excluded and expected to live on cash without the use of financial facilities, cited in a report by AfricaNenda.

For Ghanaian entrepreneur, Tarek Mouganie, the only way to tackle a problem like this is through the development of digital financial services. His solution, Affinity Africa, is a digital bank.

Mouganie holds an engineering degree from Imperial College London and PhD from the University of Cambridge. After working in the United Kingdom (UK) for a number of years, he decided to relocate back to Ghana to help solve the problems of the country’s unbanked and underbanked. It took Mouganie four and a half years to build the company and it finally launched in 2022.

“With no marketing spend, we have acquired 30,000 accounts just by word of mouth and, for 90% of our customers, we are their first-ever bank account. We have helped our customers save $23 million to date and have provided $13 million worth of loans as well. The average revenue of our borrowers has gone up by 500% and their employment base has gone by 3.5 times, so we are seeing growth,” says Mouganie.

The implementation of mobile money certainly is a silver lining for the future of the unbanked but according to Mouganie, it simply provides access. There is a deeper need to be addressed for small business holders.

“Our bank accounts are free, we don’t have any monthly charges and we provide interest across all accounts and that is a unique proposition. Our lending specifically focuses on small businesses which is what traditional banks don’t typically do,” says Mouganie.

He believes the problem is endemic to how African governments run their economies.

“If you look at OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, the tax to GDP ratio is 33%. If you look at Africa, it is 16%. So, we are the lowest tax-paying continent in the world and for this reason, governments typically don’t have money which causes a huge amount of issues. But what is even worse is that a majority of our taxation is indirect –VAT, E-levy and other solutions that are quite regressive.”

“The reason that exists is because we have a huge informal sector and as a result of having been excluded from financial services, small business don’t get created,” Mouganie adds.

According to Mouganie, the reason why small businesses are important is because in developed countries, they employ about 60% of the population and drive about 50% of government revenue.

“In our part of the world, that is just not the case. So, to create employment and build resilient economies, we need to support small businesses, nurture them and encourage those new businesses to be registered, so that we can drive employment and socio-economic development,” says Mouganie.

This is, perhaps, what makes Affinity’s growth noteworthy.

The journey has been far from easy. The stringent process of obtaining a banking license has proven to be a challenge for many fintech entrepreneurs in the past. But Mouganie was so confident in his vision that he sold his house in London to invest in Affinity and set out to conquer the hurdle of regulatory approvals.

“Regulators exist because they are there to protect the consumer and who is the consumer? In our case, it is our customer and the regulator in Ghana wanted to support economic growth and support small businesses. We came up with a proposition of increasing financial inclusion in the true term and not just giving accessibility, which is what mobile money and digital money has done, but very much focus on affordability as well,” says Mouganie.

He founded Affinity with the aim to solve the problem of financial inclusion through digital finance and based on the growth Mouganie has achieved so far, the digital bank is ready to transform Ghana’s unbanked sector, one customer at a time.

This content was originally published on forbesafrica.com

This content was originally published on theconversation.com

This content was originally published on forbesafrica.com.com

France is going through a tough time on the continent. Pushed out of several countries in the Sahel; facing off with the deep pockets of Russian propagandists; accused of failing to modernise its relations with former colonies, its ­burgeoning economic relationship with Nigeria is an opportunity to focus on something different.

Business potential is a balm for French officials focused on Africa who are frustrated with the geo­political dynamic of recent years. Olivier Becht, the minister for foreign trade, economic attractiveness and French nationals abroad, spent three days in Nigeria in late November.

His visit culminated in a meeting of the France Nigeria Business Council, which brought together the leading players in Nigeria’s corporate world with French officials and CEOs.

Becht spoke with The Africa Report amidst the clatter of the reception hosted by Herbert Wigwe of Access Bank – which opened a branch in Paris in May 2023.

Is France ‘feeling the heat’ on the continent?

Olivier Becht: This period of diplomatic tension that we are going through with countries in the Sahel is not representative of how France is investing itself across the 54 countries of the continent.

When we look at France’s engagement more closely, there are twice as many French companies present in Africa than a decade ago, and three times as much French direct investment. It shows that France is in no way bowing out and that it is far from being ‘chased out’ as some media suggest.

For us, Nigeria is a strategic country. It is one of the biggest economies, with the largest population and whose demographic growth will reach around 400 million people over the next 25 years.

That’s bigger than the US in a quarter of a century, and a market that is growing each day. So we are present, and France is building investment here.

More and more [investors] are getting interested in this market – and that is a good thing.

There are the sectors where we have been present for a long time, like energy, oil and gas, and more recently renewable energies, with solar parks and tomorrow perhaps windfarms, which help Nigeria’s energy transition. There is health, which we are getting increasingly involved in. Infrastructure remains important, and then there are the new areas that French companies are entering, notably tech.

There is a strong French tech presence in Lagos, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

There are economic partners in Africa, from Gulf countries to China, who offer the ability to build infrastructure as well as the financing for establishing the infrastructure. Can France compete with them?

France is not lagging when it comes to finance. When you look at French investment in Nigeria, there is $3bn from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), there is Proparco [France’s private-sector finance arm], you have concessional finance from the treasury at near-zero interest rates … So we can compete on equal terms with the Chinese and other economic competitors, which is how it should be.

What the French can bring compared to the Chinese is high environmental quality and local content. We employ locals living near worksites so that the value added is not only created but also shared with Nigerians.

How does your ministry work? How do you identify opportunity, as an institution?

We are part of France’s economic diplomacy. The economic operators we have are Business France, the French Chamber of Commerce abroad and BPI France, the national investment bank. We help accompany French companies that have expressed an interest in expanding into a particular country; sometimes we also find companies in France that we take along with us to countries because we have spotted opportunities for them.

The role of the ministry is to build high-level relationships in target countries – with the authorities and with big domestic investors – to allow our companies to grow.

Some French, and more broadly, Western, media have negative opinions about Lagos, and when they visit they are surprised by how developed the city is. This is your first time in Lagos – was this your reaction, too?

This is the case in many African countries and it is high time that French media change the idea they have of Africa, which is out of date, and realise that Africa is the continent of 21st-century growth.

Not just demographic growth; over 40% of Africans are urban – these are not people who live in huts in the savannah. Certainly, this demographic growth drives economic growth. That is why we need to be involved in this dynamic and to bring French companies with their respective strengths.

For example, in the treatment of wastewater, Veolia is the leading company worldwide; Alstom is a leading company in urban transport; Eiffage is a global leader in creating infrastructure; as well as ADP and SNCF groups, world leaders in airports and rail.

That is what French media need to grasp, and change the image of Africa that they have, to show that the continent is taking off.

The demography going in the other direction is cruel perhaps. European SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises], for example, are often run by older people. How do you encourage them to consider investing in Africa when they are likely to be highly risk-averse?

Not necessarily. You have Philippe Matière who is present here in Nigeria, for example, [who runs] an SME that is involved in bridge construction in Africa. There have been several SME representatives that I invite to come with me when I travel to the continent.

The problem with French businesses is not that they don’t think about Africa per se; it’s that they rarely think about international growth in general. That is the real problem. Our SMEs need to understand that in this world prone to shocks, you can’t put all your eggs in one basket, or in one geography. You have to diversify.

Certainly, for a French SME, it would be easier in the first instance to expand in Europe, but they have to think about Africa as a real market, which will have the same amount of consumers (or possibly more) at the same level of purchasing power as the European Union.

This content was originally published on theafricareport.com

It is no longer news that governance dysfunctions at national and international levels are the major culprits responsible for conflict, instability, and poor socio-economic development in Africa. Ethical shortfalls and accountability deficits in Africa’s governance system have long been a challenge for both the private and public sector performance.

Among the seven key aspirations listed in Africa Agenda 2063a: The Africa We Want, one theme stands out as the key to Africa’s political and economic transformation. That is “an Africa of good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law.” Even the former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Ghana’s Kofi Annan, advised that “[g]ood governance  is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development.”

Thus, it is safe to assert that accountable governance is part of the solutions  to most of Africa’s problems. The theory is easy to understand. Eradicating poverty and improving human development in Africa must begin with creation of wealth for inclusive growth, a process that requires a robust entrepreneurial class. To achieve these goals, there must be peace and security. Unfortunately, weak and dysfunctional governance structures continue to prevent many African countries from creating and sustaining the necessary enabling environment for peaceful coexistence, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation.

For many, politics in Africa is a realm that attracts courageous crooks  and scares away cowardly saints. Unless ethical leadership and accountable governance become prerequisites for holding public office, African nations will continue to be at the mercy of elected officials who assume office to feed their greed and line their pockets. Africa is facing perennial challenges such as intra-state conflict, terrorism, and unconstitutional changes of government, among others. Governance issues are often at the heart of these perennial problems. Many African states are also facing difficult questions to uphold accountable governance and ethical leadership.

The degree of adherence to, and extent of compliance with, accountable governance and respect for  the rule of law in Africa differs from country to country. According to the 2021  World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, which ranked 139 countries, the highly  ranked country in Africa is Rwanda on position  42 whereas the lowest is the Democratic Republic of the Congo on position  137. In North Africa, Tunisia is ranked the highest while Egypt is the lowest at position 136. Most countries in Africa are in the top 48 percent category indicating progress towards commitment to accountable governance on the African continent despite retrogressive events reversing the trajectory of constitutionalism on the continent. The recent Ibrahim Index of African Governance show progress in constitutionalism in countries such as Malawi and Senegal. The recent rise in unconstitutional changes of government has overshadowed successful transfers of power in many progressive countries that uphold constitutionalism. For example, most countries in Southern Africa have upheld constitutionalism and respect of the rule of law save for Lesotho, where there has been political instability, and Eswatini, which is the only remaining absolute monarchy in the region. Likewise, East Africa hosts several stable democracies, especially Tanzania and Kenya, which has just held a peaceful election and, so far, envisaging a peaceful transfer of power. West Africa is home to largest democracies on the continent such as Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal.

While there cannot be a one-size-fits-all explanation for the proliferation of coups , the causal factors include illiteracy and poverty, especially for vulnerable and marginalised populations, insecurity, poor governance, including endemic corruption and economic mismanagement, infrastructural deficit, poor socio-economic systems and institutions, and frustrated youths.  Africa has seen a renewed quest for accountable governance expressed itself in the streets, popular culture, the Internet, and social media. These youth-led popular protests have demonstrated against social injustice, fraudulent elections, corruption, insecurity, demanding inclusion to participate in governance and a life of dignity as equal citizens. Socio-economic conditions have produced public outrage. Many countries today still face difficult governance questions such as how can governments counter terrorism and cybercrimes without infringing the right to privacy of individuals? How can security agencies strike a balance between confidentiality or secrecy and the citizens’ right of access to information? How can we ensure parliamentary oversight of defence and security organs in view of lack of technical capacity of parliamentarians in this specialized sector?

Accountable governance is central to the achievement of all the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals  (SDGs). This is particularly clear in Goal 16, which requires States to “[p]romote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels. For example, in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area  (ACFTA), Africa cannot have free trade that creates wealth without governance systems that ensure that all trade within and across the continent is fair.

Countries  cannot create jobs that make people self-reliant without governance mechanisms that protect workers from exploitation. States cannot achieve food security without holding cartels that pervert the marketplace accountable to protect farmers. Public office-bearers may ignore their constitutional obligations at their peril where accountability and the rule of law constitute the sharp and mighty sword against impunity. States cannot defeat institutional corruption without independent and impartial oversight mechanisms where public officers are held accountable. Therefore, accountable governance coupled with ethical leadership are the foundations to achieve the Africa We Want.

What is Accountable Governance?

Accountable governance entails respect for the rule of law where the exercise of authority is subject to accountability, just law, open government, and accessible and impartial justice.  is built on a foundation of rule of law particularly accountability and transparency; combating corruption, empowered civil societies including citizen participation in governance, an enabling legal and judicial framework, and an efficient private sector. Accountable governance promotes transparency, respect for the rule of law including equality under the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and promoting public trust.

Accountable Governance is an enabler for socio-economic development in Africa. From an economic perspective, accountable governance is what creates an enabling environment for economic efficiency through equitable rules that promote fair and well-functioning markets, curtail corruption, and ensure the fair delivery of public services. From a social standpoint, accountable governance is what prevents the marginalization of vulnerable social groups by the rich, the powerful, and the well-connected thereby promoting peace. From a development angle, accountable governance is what ensures the equitable distribution of infrastructural developments and provision of welfare programmes. The key challenge then is how to attain accountable governance accompanied by ethical leadership on the continent.

The picture that is emerging from this discussion is that the key to achieve peace, security and development in Africa is accountable governance, which entails responsible leadership, participatory citizenship, free, fair, and just political representation. Accountable has the attendant attributes to improving socioeconomic well-being of the population in terms of quality education, affordable health care, job creation, financial security, food security, and an effective criminal justice system that fights corruption and impunity. In the spirit of African Solutions to African Problems, African states should resolve some of the ethical and governance issues stalling peace and clogging the wheels of growth and development on the continent. This discussion suggests four people-centred approaches to achieve accountable governance in Africa.

First, countries should entrench mechanisms that promote constitutionalism, accountability, democracy, and accountable governance. Accountable governance can only be guaranteed by strong public institutions that uphold the rule of law, operate within a human rights framework, and require public duty-bearers to be transparent and accountable. To perform its oversight role, the judiciary should be independent and impartial.

Secondly, a critical imperative to achieve accountable governance is empowerment of citizens. To this end, African countries should develop and implement education programmes that help citizens to not only understand and appreciate national constitutions but also recognise the law as a tool that they can use to organize their private lives and resolve their conflicts, at personal and societal levels. This need for legal and constitutional education is particularly urgent among marginalized groups such as youth and women. They too need to be empowered with the information, whether it be on such topics as security, rights, terrorism, intra-state conflicts, trade laws, unconstitutional changes of government, or laws that regulate our economy, our agriculture, our mining, our media, our elections, and our domestic relationships.

Third, ethical leadership is a precursor to accountable governance. Ethical leadership is characterized by a strong social contract between the society and the state, that is sufficiently inclusive to permit management of diversity and plurality of views. Ethical leadership is a potent force to propel the body politic to focus on ethical values that serve as a model for the rest of society. Thus, ethical leadership is critical to inculcate a culture of constitutionalism and the rule of law in Africa, where the law is the basis for political decision-making and administrative action.

Fourth, more states should subject themselves to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to achieve a critical mass of accountable governance on the continent. As a component of the New Partnership For Africa’s Development  (NEPAD), the APRM is a voluntary mechanism designed to promote structural conflict prevention through good governance. Given the nature of the peace and security on the continent, the APSA cannot work in isolation, it must consistently and coherently coordinate with human rights institutions and organs meant to promote peace, security, and socioeconomic well-being of individuals on the continent.

Accountable governance is key for an _Africa where there is political stability,  deepened democracy , equity, and justice, and economic prosperity. To achieve this, there must always be a strong social contract between society and the State. On their part, African leaders should redefine their politics to focus not on power but commit to accountability, respect for the rule of law and ethical values that make leadership a people-centred enterprise.