29 November 2016
Africa’s future economic development is of significant current relevance across academia and industry. With the current sliding of commodity prices, there is now an opportunity to explore new avenues of investment and reconsider the impact of capitalism on the continent.
In November 2016, SBI Director, Professor Kenneth Amaeshi, was invited to be a guest panellist on South Africa’s Classic FM (102.7FM) radio show, which was hosted by Classic Business Anchor, Michael Avery. The panel discussed the topic of Rethinking Capitalism in Africa.
Professor Amaeshi was joined by Russel Lamberti (Head Strategist, ETM Analytics) and Wildu du Plessis (Partner and Africa Head, Baker & McKenzie, South Africa).
The conversation was shaped around the challenges and opportunities for Africa and the role that capitalism can play in its progress. The Africa rising narrative has been halted somewhat due to recent market changes and there is a chance to explore what capitalism entails and how it can contribute to development.
Main points presented by the panellists include:
Professor Kenneth Amaeshi: International examples have shown that capitalism needs to be adapted to specific contexts and this is no different for the African continent. The question is how it can be harnessed to ensure that it delivers better outcomes? It should be context dependent and is different from one region of the world to another. For the African context, we need to adapt and create a new capitalism culture.
Russel Lamberti: How can we get capitalism to best serve the people of Africa? It is a word that means different things to different people and we need to avoid getting hung up on the exact definition of it. Africans need to be able to freely express themselves and have the freedom to develop economically. Russel also considered the concept of property rights and property freedoms and how this ties into the concept of development.
Wildu du Plessis: We need to promote entrepreneurs who are accountable for their actions and innovators and businessmen that take responsibility. Different approaches and actors all play a role there needs to be some responsibility for monitoring impacts of capitalism. How can individuals take more responsibility for their actions?
More information on the Sustainable Business Initiative’s (SBI) Africapitalism programme can be found on the research page: