Leadership matters: Africa’s new leaders herald a new dawn

My friends at South Africa: The Good News are writing a new book. A more ambitious project it is “Africa: the Good News”. It will be out in November 2008, and you can order advanced copies at a discount by contacting Leanne Nimmo at leanne@sagoodnews.co.za.

Here is an extract from one of the chapters on leadership. It comes from their latest e-zine.

History has shown time and again that societies are made or broken by the few individuals who lead them.

It is difficult to imagine where the USA would be today without the efforts of one man, Martin Luther King, Jr., who brought about racial equality in that nation. It is also hard to imagine where India would be today without Mahatma Ghandi’s efforts to free his country from colonial rule, or where South Africa would be today without the collective efforts of three people: Nelson Mandela, FW De Klerk & Desmond Tutu.

In the arena of science and technology, it is hard to imagine our world today without the efforts of exceptional individuals like Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs of Apple, or Larry Page & Sergei Brin of Google. The same holds true in the fields of education, healthcare, music, drama, journalism and sport. A few individuals change the world. These individuals – the leaders of society – determine the path of history.

No other continent better illustrates the importance of leadership in determining the future of a society than Africa does. For decades, the continent was saddled with ineffective and unethical leaders who stunted its development. Civil wars and regional conflicts – like those that occurred in the Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone – led to millions of deaths and created unstable environments in which development simply could not take place. Billions of dollars in foreign aid, oil revenues, and tax collection were siphoned out of the country into Swiss bank accounts instead of being used to develop the continent.

Leadership is the most fundamental thing to get right for Africa. Once Africa got its leadership right, the continent could start to make progress in leaps and bounds.

With good leadership in place, Africa would finally get on with the job of development. Entrepreneurs would have stable environments in which to launch new businesses and thereby lead the continent out of poverty. Africa’s youth would get educated and could generate innovative ideas for transforming Africa. Infrastructure would be built to provide clean drinking water, electricity, and communication to rural areas. Roads would be constructed for transporting crops from rural areas to where their markets were located.

The good news about leadership in Africa

Over the last decade, the quality of leadership in Africa has drastically improved. This is illustrated by:

A new breed of leaders: The despotic and corrupt political leaders that Africa was famous for have largely moved on, allowing a new face of leadership to emerge in Africa. While by no means perfect, leaders such as Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia, John Kuffour in Ghana, Abdoulaye Wade in Senegal, Paul Kagame in Rwanda, Umaru Yar’Adua in Nigeria and Jakaya Kikwete in Tanzania are in an entirely new class of leaders than those of the past. This new breed of leaders genuinely seems to have the best interests of their people at heart, as opposed to simply amassing personal fortunes or pursuing their own agendas.

Improved civil and political governance: By 2000, a decade after the end of the cold war brought multiparty systems across Africa, 32 out of Africa’s 53 heads of state had been chosen by elections. Thirty years ago, only three of the 53 heads of state had been chosen this way. This increase in democracy, coupled with the cessation of many of the longest-lasting conflicts in Africa and initiatives like the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) have ushered in a period of political stability never before seen in post-independence Africa. Ghana, for example, has experienced over 20 years of political stability.

More market-oriented governments: Increasingly, African governments are seeing the private sector as the key avenue for economic growth, and are therefore reducing red tape and making it easier for businesses to operate. They have improved the regulatory environment, shown greater respect for property rights, established more independent judiciaries and more effective business dispute resolution mechanisms. For example, after years of experimenting with socialist policies, governments like Tanzania’s are truly embracing free-market economic policies.

Reduced tolerance for non-democratic peers: African leaders, long renowned for their unwillingness to speak against their peers who were ruling in undemocratic ways, shocked the world when they strongly condemned Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe at their annual African Union summit in July 2008 for his brutal suppression of opposition in Zimbabwe and for staging elections that were widely deemed as unfair.

Business leaders with a social conscience: New entrepreneurial leaders have also emerged on a scale never before seen in Africa. For example, Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese national, built a pan-African mobile phone operation known as Celtel, and subsequently sold it for approximately US $3.4 billion. He has since established the Mo Ibrahim Foundation with a significant portion of his personal fortune. His Foundation is dedicated to improving the quality of governance in Africa and last year it launched the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, awarded annually to a former African Head of State who has demonstrated excellence in African leadership.

Another example is Cecilia Ibru, a Nigerian businesswoman, who built Africa’s fifth largest bank (as measured by shareholder’s funds) largely from scratch in less than a decade. She too has invested $1 billion of her personal fortune into a foundation dedicated to education. Such community-spirited leaders are extremely welcoming signs for Africa.

How improved leadership is transforming Africa

The effects of improved leadership are being seen across the continent. These effects are the following:

Increased GDP growth: According to the IMF and World Bank, Africa is experiencing the fastest level of sustained economic growth it has seen in 30 years (averaging over 5% since 2004. In fact, at a time when most of the world is experiencing an economic slowdown, Africa is one of the fastest-growing regions in the world. According to various analysts, the continent’s economy is forecasted to grow at between 5% and 7% over the next five years. Despite popular belief that most of this growth is temporary and is driven by the global increase in commodity prices, a deeper look shows that this is a more robust form of growth. According to research performed by McKinsey & Company, the international management consultancy, only 15% of economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2000 and 2006 was directly attributable to an increase in commodity resource prices. This point is underscored by the fact that countries such as Mozambique, Rwanda, Ghana, and Uganda are all growing at rates of 5-7% per annum, yet have no commodities of significance to export.

Macroeconomic stability: After years of hyperinflation and large government deficits, inflation across the continent has reduced to single to low double-digits, interest rates have come down from rates such as 45-60% across the continent to more palatable rates in the low double-digits. African leaders are implementing far more prudent fiscal and monetary policies than in the past. Trevor Manuel, Finance Minister of South Africa, is widely regarded as one of the best finance ministers in the world for the adept manner in which he has led fiscal policy in South Africa.

Increasing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): In 2000, Africa received about 8 billion in foreign direct investment. By 2006, this number had quadrupled to $33 billion. This investment is being led by both multinational companies and private investors: for example, Prince Al Walid of Saudi Arabia (the thirteenth richest man in the world according to Forbes magazine and renowned as one of the world’s most astute investors), has set aside almost a billion dollars of his net worth just to invest in Africa. Foreign investors have long shied away from Africa due to political instability and thus such investment signals their increasing belief in the long-term future of Africa.

Skilled Africans returning from the West: With more stable environments and booming economies, more and more Africans are returning to the continent, beginning to reverse the ‘brain drain’ that has long plagued Africa. Nigeria is attracting several of its highly skilled citizens back from the West, as are Ghana, Kenya and others. These returnees are bringing back their ideas and launching new businesses and participating actively in a broader socio-economic revival of their countries, similar to what occurred in China and India when its western-educated and trained citizens began to return.

Sustaining the momentum

The question then becomes: how can we sustain this improvement in leadership that we are seeing across Africa? The answer, I believe, lies in the next generation of African leaders-the youth of today. Africa’s future leaders are the only ones who can take the good work being done today to even greater heights. These future leaders will need to be carefully identified and developed to assume leadership roles in the future. In 2003, in line with this belief, a few colleagues and I were inspired to launch the African Leadership Academy.

The present moment is a turning point in Africa’s history. For the first time in two decades, the continent seems to be on the right path. A small group of people is all that is needed to sustain this revival and transform Africa into a continent of peace and prosperity. This “small group” is a new breed of leaders across the continent. This new breed will not develop overnight. They will arise from the continent’s youth. Initiatives such as the African Leadership Academy will develop this group and in so doing, assist in the transformation of Africa.

By Fred Swaniker

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Ghanian educationalist and entrepreneur Fred Swaniker doesn’t just talk about the need to develop Africa’s new leaders, he does something about it. Mr Swaniker is the founder and CEO of the African Leadership Academy, a non-profit institution situated in Johannesburg that aims to develop future generations of African leaders. He has lived in Ghana, the Gambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Nigeria. Mr Swaniker holds an MBA degree from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he was named an Arjay Miller Scholar, a distinction awarded to the top ten percent of each graduating class.

For more information, visit the African Leadership Academy website and read this article that appeared on the SA Good News website.

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This is an excerpt of a chapter that Mr Swaniker wrote for our latest publication Africa – The Good News, a beautiful coffee table book that will be available from November 2008. For more information about the book or to order copies, please contact Leanne Nimmo (leanne@sagoodnews.co.za). All orders made prior to November 1 2008 will qualify for a 15% discount.

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