It’s no doubt Africans are our own worst enemies. Historically we have been disadvantaged by issues like slavery and colonialism, and the world order that puts us at the bottom of the food chain – but we have not quite helped ourselves to get out of the quagmire.
In issues of industrialisation and properly utilising the raw materials the continent produces, we’ve woefully failed over the years to even start scratching the surface of what we can and should accomplish to kickstart the continent’s development.
We send out billions of dollars of revenue each year to foreign nations in importing manufactured goods, goods that are manufactured from raw materials  developed right here – it’s an infuriating and damning statistic.
And aside that one, there is another damning statistic illuminating the long road to development ahead of this continent. In 2014, the continent spent US$35 billion on food imports.
That’s insane, especially for arguably the most fertile continent in the world.
So we spend a fortune importing food every year, whilst our farming infrastructure remains mired in the past. The practice has not been modernised in most parts of the continent, and even in places were excess is produced, it’s usually wasted due to poor storage practices.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan pointed this out in a post on Facebook, although nothing much has been done about it since then.
He wrote…

A statistic to pause and make you think: Africa spends roughly US$35 billion a year on food imports. Could you imagine if this money, or a substantial portion of it went to African farmers and the fishing communities instead of foreign businesses? Could you imagine what impact this would have on the lives of those who toil on our farms day in and day out, out there alone, often with very little help from the government or the society? – Kofi Annan