The US must seek to bridge the gap between Africa’s economic innovators and its political class

It is said that character is revealed by how one responds to adversity – that it is life’s setbacks that create the opportunity for renewal, and in other cases, and unfortunately, an excuse for withdrawal. I found this particularly true as I observed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa.

From September 2020, as airports across Africa reopened after the initial surge, I set out, often in a state of constant fear of being quarantined in a military hospital or – worse – getting really sick and not more able to return home. Then, last year, as normality returned, I lost count of the international conferences I attended with colleagues in a frenzy to return to in-person events on the continent.

I had the opportunity to see first-hand how different actors – governments, politicians, the private sector, civil society and Africa’s international partners – responded to the challenge.

My key takeaway was that Africa’s private sector – particularly its young innovators – has grasped the moment, in contrast to the political class, which has atrophied, and the international donor community, which has at times supported and abetted the dysfunction.

I hope that the Biden administration will learn from the pandemic response as it implements the key commitments made at last year’s US-Africa Leaders Summit, which brought together more than 40 African presidents with President Biden, congressional leaders, US diplomats and business leaders came together, and the African diaspora, for a fresh start with the continent.

Here’s why.

The Pandemic accelerated changes in citizens’ behavior and the private sector met them in terms of their needs and ability to pay. African companies have developed thousands of new products and services at prices that could be absorbed by economies of scale made possible by innovation. This evolution has been made possible by more than a decade of dedicated investment in proprietary technology solutions to community-based challenges.

And global capital markets, led by the United States, responded. In 2021, African tech startups raised a record nearly $5 billion, much more than the global average. These included companies like Interswitch, Paystack and Flutterwave, part of Nigeria’s fintech revolution, and entrepreneurs who are changing the face of healthcare in Africa.

The crisis also demonstrated the resilience of Africa’s public-private partnerships, including financial institutions such as the African Finance Corporation and the African Export-Import Bank, which stepped in to plug vaccine financing gaps and inject liquidity into struggling economies.

In contrast, most African governments have only become more entangled in corruption. There have been government scrambles in too many countries to personally benefit from COVID relief, only deepening the wounds of the pandemic.

The health emergency was also used to consolidate power, Big Man style. With the world’s attention elsewhere, particularly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the continent saw a surge in military coups and the spectacle of a Central African president extending his 43 years in office. Effortless.

Africa’s donor nations did nothing to help, channeling funds and goods exclusively through public health facilities while relaxing accountability to oversee their use. Little effort was made to involve Africa’s private sector, although vaccine development and distribution in the United States relied heavily on such public-private partnership.

It is unsustainable for an African ruling class to continue to restrict democratic space and crowd out its private sector, especially when it comes to creating jobs and creating economic opportunity in a continent of 1.3 billion people – where by 2050 one in four people will live will be African – is anything but an existential threat to the planet.

As the Biden administration prepares to fulfill its commitments at the 2022 summit, it must consider how its policies, funding, programs and commitments will feed the continent’s innovators — and starve its political dysfunction. It must be willing to ask some tough questions:

1. Does it still make sense 20 years later that our billions of healthcare dollars for PEPFAR go exclusively through public healthcare organizations with poor track records of patient retention? And without considering how these drugs can become part of a supply chain that treats other chronic diseases on the continent?
2. As the US Trade Representative considers reauthorizing the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), scheduled for 2025, we should not align our bilateral framework with the ambitions of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which has the potential to boost by 2050 an economic output of Reach $29 trillion and lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty? Are we considering tax incentives for US investors to participate in the value creation of critical commodities like we did with textiles 23 years ago?
3. What about the US Agency for International Development (USAID)? Can we top up USAID Administrator Samantha Power’s 25 percent commitment to Africa localization?
4. As for the $55 billion promised at the summit for Africa over the next three years? What is the government’s plan to have it appropriated by the Republican-led House of Representatives? How can new funds be channeled to de-risk investments for American companies so that the private sector, along with the African diaspora, can be a force multiplier for scarce US government resources?

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I am confident that these issues will be considered as the Biden administration fulfills its summit commitments and unleashes its parade of cabinet officials to the continent, culminating in a visit by Biden himself later this year.

K. Riva Levinson is President and CEO of KRL International LLC, a DC-based consulting firm serving the world’s emerging markets, and is the award-winning author of Choosing the Hero: My Improbable Journey and the Rise of Africa’s First Woman President.