Why Africa?

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The Middle East Observer is starting from this edition reviewing economic and various files to shed light on all the aspects. The various topics can be handled in a way that manages to achieve the highest economic- profit return possible to help with the development of society and the whole nation.

Every economic activity affects and is affected by all economic activities around it, which participates in the gross of the  national  income, so that all economic activity is a unit of an economic stand-alone and the aim is the development of their capabilities and maximising its profits through optimum utilisation of resources to achieve the return. But this is for sure also taking into consideration the external environment and the economic union whether political, social or economic.

From this perspective and with this edition we will begin with Africa, the land on which we live, and we will look to Egypt as economic activity that integrates with the rest of the rich African countries in natural rare and free resources as well as manpower. Africa’s natural resources and manpower have been affected over the past decades, much of the political variables which were the cause of the plagues of the rich black continent.

Africa’s economy includes trade, industry, agriculture and human resources. According to 2012 statistics; about 1.07 billion people live in 54 different countries.

Africa is a rich continent which enjoys resources but its people are considered the poorest populations in the world.

The recent growth that a large number of African countries witnessed is due to the growth in goods, sales, services and manufacturing.

Africa’s population is the poorest in the world on GDP per capita. However, large parts of the continent have made gains during the past few years.

In recent years, many African countries have become the fastest growing economies in the world.

However, the African economy was undermined in 2011 by the Arab Spring revolutions, after the first recovery witnessed after the global economic crisis in 2009.

The continent’s growth index fell from 5 per cent in 2010 to 3.4 per cent in 2011. With the recovery of North African economies and continued improvement in other areas, it was forecasted that growth rates were to accelerate to reach to 4.5 per cent in 2012 and 4.8 per cent in 2013 across the continent.

The World Bank confirms that despite the weaker global growth than expected and the stability of commodity prices falling, the African economy is still growing at a little bit more rapid pace, where it is expected that the growth rate increase in the region will reach 5.2 per cent in 2015-2016 compared to 4.6 per cent in 2014. There are still problems in the short term for the global economy at the time when Europe challenges the debt crisis. There is a decreasing of commodity prices due to weak demand and oversupply, but it is expected to remain at appropriate levels of the African source.Africa has a long series in economic history, as mankind originated in Africa as well as economic activity as a product of these gatherings. Archaeologists have found across the continent evidence of trade in goods such as precious metals and shells.Prevailing economic activity then did not know the use of money.Most African countries still depend on the export of raw materials without manufacturing, and export earnings rely on commodity price fluctuations. This matter increases the continent’s the likelihood of facing external shocks and market volatility. This bolsters the need of diversifying the forms of export. But in general the African economy mostly depends on travel and tourism, which flourish increasingly and were on the rise in 2012, which refers to the possibility of strengthening the continent’s economy.

Africa comes on the top of the world in cocoa, cassava, beans, cloves and palm kernel and vanilla, as well as in planting banana, coffee, cotton, peanuts, and manufacturing rubber, sugar, tea products.

Fishing fleets along the African coast bring large amounts of anchovies, mackerel, sardines, tuna and other types of fish and Africa exports most of these fish in the form of fish oil in order to double the possibilities of industrialisation in packaging and exporting fish.

Perhaps the greatest advantage of Africa is the vast amount of rare precious metals and oil.

The estimated oil reserves in Nigeria are B37.2 billion barrels, representing 2.53 per cent of global production, according to statistics in 2010, the daily production of Nigeria reaches 2.46 million barrels of oil.

Nigeria consumes only 279 thousand barrels and 529 thousand barrels are exported to the United States alone, one of the key countries that depend on it. Angola and Congo are in the same situation in terms of depending on the large oil revenues that contribute enormously to the achievement of some of the important gains points for those countries in the growth and development of their economies.

The World Bank stressed that the expectations of growth of the continent’s economy is confronting significant risks because of the renewed outbreak of Ebola and the violent insurgency operations taking place in some countries, as well as falling commodity prices, and the volatility of global financial circumstances.

The sharp decline in oil prices, which lost 55 per cent of its value since June, caused a major crisis for a number of African countries which depend mostly on the export of crude oil, Nigeria comes on the top.

Nigeria has seen a sharp drop in the local value of the currency “tonne”, more than 15 per cent to lose over the past three months.

There are expectations of revenue declining in foreign currency, in addition to the armed engagements in the country with Boko Haram.

The World Bank demanded that the need to restrict the budgets in some countries in the region to top the African policy priorities,  and turning spending to productive purposes , where the severe restrictions on the infrastructure ,and improved project selection and management with more transparency and accountability in the use of the public resources .

The increasing value of the dollar threatens the driving out of large foreign investments from Africa, with expectations of an increase of US interest rates, which will attract huge amounts of money from all to the United States of America.

The World Bank demanded that the top priorities of African policy, the need to restrict the budgets in some countries in the region, and convert expenditure to productive purposes, since the restrictions on sharp infrastructure have improved project selection and management with greater transparency and accountability in the use of public resources.

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