Ghanaian entrepreneurs earn about USD 150 for every frame they build, while the finished bikes are sold in United States for about USD 950 each.

In my experience as a young researcher in Africa there are three factors that have been a part of most of the violent clashes I have heard of or lived through: politics, ethnic rivalries and economics.

Many commentaries on the Jos crisis touched on the role of religion, politics, and even geography. However, the common denominator in the crisis — as in most sectarian crises in Nigeria — is traceable to the deep inequalities in the society. The elements of religion or politics are just mere facilitators in the conflict.

The conventional wisdom that Africa is not reducing poverty is wrong. A recent study published by US-based National Bureau of Economic Research shows that:

African poverty is falling and is falling rapidly;
If present trends continue, the poverty Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people with incomes less than one dollar a day will be [...]

Now at age 65 — and with his four children out of college, Dr Godwin Onyema, obstetrician/gynecologist is preparing to return to Nigeria to open a women’s hospital. It would be Onyema’s chance to make good on a promise he made to his father in 1974 when he came to the United States to study medicine.

Nigeria’s ruling political party has said it wants a Muslim from the north to stand as its candidate for the oil-rich nation’s presidential election next year, blocking the country’s Christian acting president from seeking the office.
The announcement by Vincent Ogbulafor, national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, late Tuesday appears to cut acting President Goodluck [...]

Many experts believe Africa, with its expansive base of newly minted consumers, may very well be on the verge of becoming the next India, thanks to frenetic urbanization and the sort of big push in services and infrastructure that transformed the Asian subcontinent 15 years ago. Just as India once harnessed its booming population of cheap labor, Africa stands to gain by the rapid growth of its big cities.

Almost half of the 72 million children out of school worldwide in 2007 lived in sub-Saharan Africa. In the view of most education advocates, school fees served more as a barrier to the poor than as a source of finance for good education.

African entrepreneurs helping lead the way with innovative approaches to trade and exports. Focus on Ethiopia…

You look at this picture and you ask yourself why dictators don’t prevent these coups from happening?