•African business ingenuity is beginning to thrive and contribute to general prosperity.

By Chisanga Puta –
AFRICA is the world’s most complex and diverse continent.  For that reason, generalisations about the continent are rarely useful.
Despite this, however, Western reporting of the continent has often assumed the continent to be a single entity with little or no diversity.
Just for the record, let it be noted that the African continent has 54 countries (if you ignore Western Sahara and Puntland claims to sovereignty), 100 jurisdictions, more than 1000 languages and a similar number of cultures.  One country alone, Kenya, has more genetic differentiation than Europe and Asia combined.
Despite this diversity, however, there is a common positive trend emerging on the continent.
With more and more Africans living in transparent democratic societies, African business ingenuity is beginning to thrive and contribute to general prosperity.
Human development as measured by indicators like access to education, health care, and consumer goods has risen conspicuously in most countries on the continent.
For example, Zimbabwe, considered by many in the West to be a failed state, has an adult literacy rate of 90.7 per cent.
In continental terms adult literacy rates jumped from 42 per cent in 2000 to 60 per cent in 2013.
Secondary-school enrolment grew by 48 per cent between 2000 and 2008 following a decision by many countries to abolish school fees for basic education.
Over the past decade malaria deaths in some of the worst-affected countries have declined by 30 per cent and HIV infections by up to 74 per cent. Rwanda has been a leader in this regard. Life expectancy across the continent has increased by about 10per cent and child mortality rates in most countries have been falling steeply.
These achievements have been important for setting the stage for economic growth. Over the past twelve years real income per person has increased by more than 30per cent , whereas in the previous 20 years it shrank by nearly 10per cent.
Africa is currently the world’s fastest-growing continent.
According to the Economist the continent’s GDP is expected to rise by an average of 6per cent  a year over the coming ten years.
This rise will be attributable not to aid, but to foreign direct investment as well as shrewd local investment.Whereas the continent only attracted $15 billion in FDI in 2002, foreign direct investment jumped to $46 billion in 2012.
There are many indicators of increased consumption of goods and services that were previously conspicuous only by their absence.
The most visible indicator is the use of mobile phones.
The African continent has three mobile phones for every four people, the same ratio as India.
Within the next two years nearly 30 per cent  of households are expected to have a television set, representing nearly a fivefold increase since 2007.
Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry, produces more movies than Hollywood, the American film industry.
This encouraging picture is sustainable because young African entrepreneurs have decided to play their part.  For example, 27 year old Kenyan entrepreneur, Alex Mwaura Muriu founded
Farm Capital Africa, a new risk-sharing, crowdfunding model that enables investing in small-scale African ‘agri-preneurs’.
The company aims to address the funding challenges faced by entrepreneurs interested in farming, and was recently selected as one of 10 finalists for 2015’s Innovation Prize for Africa.
Further south, three young Zimbabwean entrepreneurs have teamed up with a Swedish and Dutch partner to create Realty Africa a property crowdfunding platform providing investors with informed investment opportunities in all aspects of property developments in Southern Africa.
This vehicle allows investors access to markets that have historically been out of reach or neglected because of Africa’s historic poor image in the western world.
To reflect the issues of the day, Realty Africa has committed itself to corporate social responsibility with a view to ensuring that low income Africans also benefit from property development.
Young Africa is alive and vibrant.  May it have a long life!
(The author is former Ontario deputy minister for Citizenship, Immigration, and International Trade)