Africa: Why Francophones are lagging behind Anglophones
By Alain Faujas, theafricareport.com,12-01-2012
French-speaking
SSA is lagging behind English-speaking Africa, even without the weight
of South Africa. Whilst languor has spread its tentacles from Dakar
through Yaoundé to Kinshasa, inciting people to dream of emigration,
life is beaming with vigour from Accra through Lagos to Nairobi, with
flourishing projects and business deals only a computer mouse click or
phone call away.To measure this economic divide calls for the
need to eliminate the two prevalent ills that bridge the continental
divide: corruption and ethnic conflicts. With the exception of Zimbabwe,
where the economic follies of Mugabe's government unleashed an
inflation rate of more 200,000,000 percent some two years ago, a look at
the overall figures brings some surprising results to the fore.
French-speaking countries account for only 19 percent of SSA's average GDP whilst English-speaking countries boast of 47 percent (excluding South Africa). Countries belonging to the mainly French-speaking Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA) have been growing at an average rate of 3.4 percent per annum in the last ten years, whilst those of the mainly English-speaking East Africa Community (EAC) have registered a 5.4 percent growth rate.
English-speaking countries are also ranked in more favorable positions by the World Bank's "Doing Business" report, which measures the quality of the business environment. In those countries it is much easier to start a business, clear imports and obtain payment from debtors. Telephone calls in Benin, for example, cost four hundred times more than in Ghana.
With regard to human development, seven of the ten worst ranked (out of 187) by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are French-speaking African states, and three of them- Burundi, Niger and DRC - occupy the last three positions.
Irremediable disability?
Both development and non-development depend on many factors. Five experts from Africa have agreed to separate wheat from the chaff in order to determine cultural influences that have proved themselves as big barriers to some essential institutions and analyse bottlenecks in the area of monetary and geopolitical issues. The nagging question is: Where does this handicap come from? And is it salvageable?
According to Jean-Michel Severino, manager at Investisseur et Partenaire pour le Développement (I&P), dedicated to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Africa, and former director general of the French Development Agency (AFD), conflict is the bane of French-speaking Africa. "Over the last decade, two of the principal countries, DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] and Côte d'Ivoire, have undergone turmoils that have affected development in the whole [Francophone] zone. These countries had experienced growth comparable to that of their English-speaking neighbours after independence."
The common currency among French-speaking countries in both West and Central Africa, the CFA franc has also, seemingly, been a burden, despite the fact that it is more protected from inflation than currencies that are not aligned to the euro. "The CFA franc has been strong over the past decade" says the former executive director of the AFD, "and one can imagine that countries with floating currencies have adjusted better than those using the common currency. Whilst it is not favorable to exports, it is not the strength of the CFA that is under the spotlight, but rather the disconnect of the development of a monetary system outside its African conjuncture. It will require African leaders to reflect on what mechanisms to put in place rather than completely halting the regional monetary union or cutting links between the euro and the CFA franc."
Thierry Tanoh, vice president of the International Finance Corporation (IFC)- a member of the World Bank group, and soon managing director of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), also revisits the infrastructure issue as well as the size of the market, which he deems are the two major weaknesses of the CFA bloc.
Tanoh begins his description of these deficiencies with anecdotal illustrations. "The boss of a food company in Niger is desperate because her company has reached its full potential in the limited home market and yet it is impossible to export her products due to regulatory barriers and transportation costs."
He cites another example about a desperate truck owner who transports cocoa and lives in a francophone country. "Under normal circumstances, a truck's shock absorbers are overhauled over a three year period. But because of the very poor state of roads in his country, his truck requires repairs after only one year. This discourages investors, who seek minimum risk."
"Working Together"
French-speaking countries are too small and sparsely populated. Tanoh goes on to add. "With the exception of DRC, we must acknowledge that the big countries in Africa are English and Portuguese-speaking. This means that market integration is the only solution to compensate for this handicap. But whilst there are more regional economic organisations in the French zone, in reality it is the English-speaking countries, with SADC [Southern Africa Development Community] and EAC, that have become a force to reckon with, all in the absence of a common currency!"
Bouthelier Anthony, deputy chairman of the French Council of Investors in Africa (CIAN), argues that if French multi-national companies, such as Lafarge and L'Oreal, are steering towards English-speaking countries it is because "regionalisation of the market works better [East Africa] than in West Africa."
"Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Mozambique give the impression of wanting to work together," he adds.
He believes that collective philosophy accounts for a lot. "Countries with the Anglo-Saxon culture are more oriented towards business and entrepreneurship, and people in those countries are less inclined to yearn to become civil servants than their counterparts with the French culture."
Serge Michailof, professor at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris argues along the same lines. "The training of elites in English-speaking countries, especially administrative elites, accounts for this trend, as it instills the belief that private business is essential for the development process." He says. "The left-wing oriented training provided by French teachers is a polar opposite." Adding that "the overvalued CFA franc has been very negative, and its particularly disempowering characteristic has been harmful, because it is controlled by its former colonial power."
Shanta Devarajan, chief economist for Africa at the World Bank, has a more nuanced stance. He suggests that the gap between the two language blocs is "not as strong as we think" and that English-speaking countries have also gone through some tough times. In reference to some of the causes of lethargy in French-speaking countries, he points to the fact that first and foremost West African countries "have significant natural resources, a wealth that go hand in glove with their predisposed fragility by virtue of their multiple conflicts, more than in East Africa". But these conflicts are not only limited to French-speaking countries as Sierra Leone and Liberia were particularly ravaged by civil war.
An opaque system
Devarajan especially blames the system of funding by states. "In [francophone] West African countries where revenue generated from natural resources is omnipresent, money does not go through the citizenry, but rather directly channelled to the government by mining and oil companies. This process provides manifold opportunities to re-route revenue in a very opaque system. It does not seek to involve people who do not pay taxes, for lack of income, and are therefore not much concerned about the proper use of public funds."
 |
| The CFA franc is the common currency/Reuters |
Lack of infrastructure, a poor corporate culture and bad governance. French-speaking countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are, in recent years, lagging behind their English-speaking neighbours.
French-speaking countries account for only 19 percent of SSA's average GDP whilst English-speaking countries boast of 47 percent (excluding South Africa). Countries belonging to the mainly French-speaking Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA) have been growing at an average rate of 3.4 percent per annum in the last ten years, whilst those of the mainly English-speaking East Africa Community (EAC) have registered a 5.4 percent growth rate.
English-speaking countries are also ranked in more favorable positions by the World Bank's "Doing Business" report, which measures the quality of the business environment. In those countries it is much easier to start a business, clear imports and obtain payment from debtors. Telephone calls in Benin, for example, cost four hundred times more than in Ghana.
With regard to human development, seven of the ten worst ranked (out of 187) by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are French-speaking African states, and three of them- Burundi, Niger and DRC - occupy the last three positions.
Irremediable disability?
Both development and non-development depend on many factors. Five experts from Africa have agreed to separate wheat from the chaff in order to determine cultural influences that have proved themselves as big barriers to some essential institutions and analyse bottlenecks in the area of monetary and geopolitical issues. The nagging question is: Where does this handicap come from? And is it salvageable?
According to Jean-Michel Severino, manager at Investisseur et Partenaire pour le Développement (I&P), dedicated to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Africa, and former director general of the French Development Agency (AFD), conflict is the bane of French-speaking Africa. "Over the last decade, two of the principal countries, DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] and Côte d'Ivoire, have undergone turmoils that have affected development in the whole [Francophone] zone. These countries had experienced growth comparable to that of their English-speaking neighbours after independence."
The common currency among French-speaking countries in both West and Central Africa, the CFA franc has also, seemingly, been a burden, despite the fact that it is more protected from inflation than currencies that are not aligned to the euro. "The CFA franc has been strong over the past decade" says the former executive director of the AFD, "and one can imagine that countries with floating currencies have adjusted better than those using the common currency. Whilst it is not favorable to exports, it is not the strength of the CFA that is under the spotlight, but rather the disconnect of the development of a monetary system outside its African conjuncture. It will require African leaders to reflect on what mechanisms to put in place rather than completely halting the regional monetary union or cutting links between the euro and the CFA franc."
the boss of a food company in Niger is desperate because her company has reached its full potential in the limited home market
In
his final argument, Jean-Michel Severino points out infrastructure as
being deficient in most French-speaking countries. "I am struck to see
that policies are quite conservative in terms of rates in the area of
energy, water and transport. This has generated an infrastructure
deficit - phenomenal in the case of Cameroon and Senegal - and impacted
development in a big way."Thierry Tanoh, vice president of the International Finance Corporation (IFC)- a member of the World Bank group, and soon managing director of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), also revisits the infrastructure issue as well as the size of the market, which he deems are the two major weaknesses of the CFA bloc.
Tanoh begins his description of these deficiencies with anecdotal illustrations. "The boss of a food company in Niger is desperate because her company has reached its full potential in the limited home market and yet it is impossible to export her products due to regulatory barriers and transportation costs."
He cites another example about a desperate truck owner who transports cocoa and lives in a francophone country. "Under normal circumstances, a truck's shock absorbers are overhauled over a three year period. But because of the very poor state of roads in his country, his truck requires repairs after only one year. This discourages investors, who seek minimum risk."
"Working Together"
French-speaking countries are too small and sparsely populated. Tanoh goes on to add. "With the exception of DRC, we must acknowledge that the big countries in Africa are English and Portuguese-speaking. This means that market integration is the only solution to compensate for this handicap. But whilst there are more regional economic organisations in the French zone, in reality it is the English-speaking countries, with SADC [Southern Africa Development Community] and EAC, that have become a force to reckon with, all in the absence of a common currency!"
Bouthelier Anthony, deputy chairman of the French Council of Investors in Africa (CIAN), argues that if French multi-national companies, such as Lafarge and L'Oreal, are steering towards English-speaking countries it is because "regionalisation of the market works better [East Africa] than in West Africa."
"Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Mozambique give the impression of wanting to work together," he adds.
He believes that collective philosophy accounts for a lot. "Countries with the Anglo-Saxon culture are more oriented towards business and entrepreneurship, and people in those countries are less inclined to yearn to become civil servants than their counterparts with the French culture."
Serge Michailof, professor at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris argues along the same lines. "The training of elites in English-speaking countries, especially administrative elites, accounts for this trend, as it instills the belief that private business is essential for the development process." He says. "The left-wing oriented training provided by French teachers is a polar opposite." Adding that "the overvalued CFA franc has been very negative, and its particularly disempowering characteristic has been harmful, because it is controlled by its former colonial power."
Shanta Devarajan, chief economist for Africa at the World Bank, has a more nuanced stance. He suggests that the gap between the two language blocs is "not as strong as we think" and that English-speaking countries have also gone through some tough times. In reference to some of the causes of lethargy in French-speaking countries, he points to the fact that first and foremost West African countries "have significant natural resources, a wealth that go hand in glove with their predisposed fragility by virtue of their multiple conflicts, more than in East Africa". But these conflicts are not only limited to French-speaking countries as Sierra Leone and Liberia were particularly ravaged by civil war.
An opaque system
Devarajan especially blames the system of funding by states. "In [francophone] West African countries where revenue generated from natural resources is omnipresent, money does not go through the citizenry, but rather directly channelled to the government by mining and oil companies. This process provides manifold opportunities to re-route revenue in a very opaque system. It does not seek to involve people who do not pay taxes, for lack of income, and are therefore not much concerned about the proper use of public funds."
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