Comment: “It’s time for African entrepreneurs to start to figure things out and to stop sitting on the fence waiting for the government to provide solutions. Governments can support later but the momentum and direction must first come from African entrepreneurs.”

My Response:  I will respond by classifying entrepreneurs into two categories – typical entrepreneurs and pioneering entrepreneurs. Typical entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs  we meet daily, and they are common, and run in thousands in economies. Pioneering entrepreneurs are generation-shaping entrepreneurs who transform economies and nations.

Africa has many typical entrepreneurs and those entrepreneurs need platforms to operate. Economic platforms are built by governments and entrepreneurs build companies on them. The platforms include road, clean water, security, postal systems, and amenities which enable companies to grow and thrive. Some countries invest to build those platforms, even at losses, providing ecosystems for their typical entrepreneurs to do their things. 

For example, the US postal service has not recorded profit in two decades, and the US Amtrak rail system has not made a profit since 1971, and America has not shut them down. What is happening is that the postal service and other platforms are foundational platforms which enable businesses to thrive in America. 

But there are also moments when the governments cannot build platforms by themselves. What they then do, is to transfer their rights as governments to pioneering entrepreneurs. When America promulgated the eminent domain ordinance, it helped  railway tycoons like Vanderbilt to build a platform for commerce. In other words, those pioneering entrepreneurs receive special benefits to solve platform-level problems in societies.

When you read about Mellon, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and other men who built America, you will notice that the government assisted in many ways because those men were building platforms. When Bezos started Amazon, a pioneering ecommerce platform, America did not require Amazon to collect sales tax, thereby making Amazon products cheaper than the ones sold in physical stores. Without those benefits, Amazon will not be where it is today.

So, the comment has it both ways: Africa needs pioneering entrepreneurs even as the typical entrepreneurs need platforms to operate.  And someone must build those platforms because they must exist before the typical entrepreneurs can create companies on top of them.

Note this: Across human histories, from the UK to America, companies rise before nations can build strong institutions. In other words, if you expect Nigeria to have the best public institutions before great companies, you would keep waiting. Typically, what happens is that nations have great companies, and then use the taxes paid by those companies to build better public institutions. My thesis is that Nigeria cannot have solid public institutions, from great schools to good public institutions, until Nigeria has created category-leading private companies that would provide resources to build those institutions.”

You can then ask: why must it be that way? It is what it is. What the US Congress did for Amazon would be seen as cronyism in Nigeria, but sometimes, those things are done to seed new platforms.

My summary: it is either your government builds those platforms or it gives goodies to the pioneers to build the platforms, because the platforms must be built for any nation to experience development and prosperity.

Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger are on the verge of finalizing their exit from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a bloc they helped establish nearly five decades ago.

This decision, culminating in the formation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), represents a significant challenge to the vision of a unified and cooperative West Africa. The departure, scheduled for January 2025, comes after the countries rejected Ecowas’s demands to restore democratic governance.

The AES however, has offered an olive branch to ECOWAS members, allowing its citizens the rights to live and work across AES states, while goods circulate freely under the bloc’s agreements.

While the leaders of the bloc have provided a six-month grace period for the Sahel nations to reconsider their exit, the announcement marks a significant blow to ECOWAS, one of Africa’s most integrated regional organizations.

The departure of these three founding members of ECOWAS, established in 1975 to foster economic and political integration, underlines a major shift in West Africa’s regional politics. Together, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger account for over half of ECOWAS’s geographical land area and 76 million of its 446 million citizens.

While AES leaders frame their exit as a necessary pivot to sovereignty and regional security, many view it as a step backward for West Africa’s collective goals of economic unity and political stability.

However, to allay fears that their exit will harm political and economic growth of the region, the leaders of the three Sahel nations have sought to reassure the bloc of continued goodwill. AES Chairman and Mali’s military ruler, Assimi Goïta, emphasized that visa-free travel, residency rights, and the right of entry for ECOWAS citizens would remain intact within the AES.

The three nations, heavily reliant on neighboring ECOWAS coastal states for trade, risk significant isolation. Most migrants from these Sahel countries move to richer coastal economies, highlighting their dependence on the economic engine of ECOWAS.

The Back story: The Rise of Military Rule

The seeds of discord were sown with a series of military coups that toppled democratic governments across the Sahel. In 2020, a coup in Mali ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, citing corruption and the government’s failure to address a growing jihadist insurgency.

Two years later, Burkina Faso followed suit, with the military overthrowing President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré under similar pretenses. The coup wave reached Niger in 2023, with soldiers seizing power and deposing President Mohamed Bazoum.

In each case, Ecowas swiftly condemned the takeovers, suspended the countries’ memberships, and imposed sanctions in an attempt to restore civilian rule. However, the juntas, buoyed by public support and regional solidarity, resisted. For the new military leaders, the sanctions became a rallying cry against what they perceived as undue interference and a reflection of ECOWAS’s alleged allegiance to Western powers, particularly France and the United States.

The Sahel leaders have accused ECOWAS of aligning too closely with Western powers, particularly France and the United States. This growing rift denotes broader geopolitical competition in the region, as Russia positions itself as an alternative ally for African states seeking to counter jihadist insurgencies.

Russia’s involvement, through private military contractors like the Wagner Group, has deepened, with some Sahel nations attributing military gains against jihadists to Russian support.

In Mali, the military junta expelled French forces and welcomed Russian military contractors, including the Wagner Group, to combat jihadist insurgents. Burkina Faso and Niger soon followed suit, citing the need for more effective security partnerships.

The Birth of the Alliance of Sahel States

In the aftermath of the Niger standoff with ECOWAS, the three nations announced the creation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in early 2024. The new bloc was founded on principles of security cooperation, political solidarity, and economic integration.

AES leaders framed the alliance as a necessity in the face of what they described as ECOWAS’s failures. Mali’s leader, Assimi Goïta, declared that the new bloc would “chart its own path” to regional stability and development. Burkina Faso’s junta leader, Ibrahim Traoré, echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the need for a Sahel-centric approach to the region’s challenges.

ECOWAS Leaders Extend Olive Branch

Despite the Sahel states’ assertion that their exit is “irreversible,” ECOWAS leaders are working to maintain dialogue. Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Togo’s Faure Gnassingbé have been tasked with leading ongoing negotiations.

During the ECOWAS summit in Nigeria, Commission President Omar Touray expressed disappointment at the impending departures but commended mediation efforts. “This is disheartening,” he said, noting the bloc’s commitment to preserving unity.

The January to July 2025 transitional period has been opened by the bloc so that the Sahel nations can rejoin ECOWAS should they reconsider.