of the 20 poorest nations in the world and an Ebola outbreak. Yet despite all of that,

at the African Summit recently held in Washington DC President Obama announced a $14 Billion

dollar commitment to Africa from various US corporations. This isn’t money going toward

humanitarian aide or economic relief. It will be spent by US businesses to set up opportunities

and infrastructure with the sole goal of expanding into new African markets. So, is Africa a

poor war torn continent with huge problems like disease? Or is it the next boomtown for

savvy business people?

Well, it’s really not that simple. The economic standing and political stability of African

nations vary widely. There are places like the Democratic Republic Of Congo that have

been war torn for decades and are showing little economic growth. Right next to places

like Angola, which has had the same President since 1979, however corrupt he may be, and

is showing extreme growth.

Last decade Angola’s GDP grew at 11.1 percent per year, which is the highest growth of any

nation worldwide. This is partially due to their vast supply of natural resources. Partially

due to a large investment in Angola from China, to monetize those resources, developing a

healthy trade partnership along the way. And partially due to the fact that Angola’s

economy started at the bottom and had a lot of room to grow. Before stability reached

Angola in the early 80’s they were a war torn nation with no economic growth.

And that’s the thing about economic growth. Poor or war-torn nations with huge problems,

are the nations with potential for enormous economic growth. It sounds wrong and some

would argue that it is morally problematic, but it is a reality of the current economic

landscape. China has a recent history of investing in these types of nations and now their annual

trade across all of Africa is about $200 billion. That is almos t twice as much as the US and

it’s a gap that American businesses would like to close.

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