Zainab Usman pertinently highlights the missed opportunity of Africa’s petrostates to boost their economies and prepare for the future (“Africa’s petrostates are missing out on the oil boom and it matters”, Opinion, August 28).
She cites the lack of investment but politely omits the key factors of transparency and good governance in the management of oil revenues and the reinvestment of these flows into education, health and infrastructure. Nigeria’s astounding losses of potential oil revenue benefits for its population over past decades is but one grave indictment.
Failure to manage national resource revenues efficiently invites social malaise, disillusion and eventually jihadism and a failing state. Adopting a strategy for post-oil, climate-smart agribusinesses and the coming energy transition such as the Gulf states and Norway are actively implementing, requires an immediate transformation of African petrostate sovereign integrity and macro-management.
Source: ft.com