New look Africa

Last week's presentation by Mr Kuseni Dlamini raised important issues concerning the role of Africa in global trade. Businesses that plan to make it these days need to have a global outlook and the ability to keep up with global bussiness trends. African businesses are doing well so far and have the potential to do even better. The seminar was aimed at identifying the ways through which this potential could be realised.

Mr Dlamini argued that in the current global trade arena, Africa is lagging behind. Some of the keys reasons he sited for this was lack of leadership and the desire in Africans to move beyond mediocrity. I could not agree more . Often people always look for external factors to blame and fail to take responsibility for the problems they face. I felt however, that Mr Dlamini was downplaying a very important factor; that of institutionalised hurdles. I for one feel that if the continent is to become a major player in the global trade arena, there is a need to identify all the challenges and hurdles that stand in the path of development. While I totally agree with Mr Dlamini that the continent can do more to try to solve governance issues, i feel that these challenges are complex and can not be simplified to a basic problem of laziness.