Contador Harrison

Two weeks ago in Washington D.C., business leaders and policy makers from Africa attended the first ever U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit that has been considered by its proponents as an enormous success and its detractors as just ‘another US fire fighting’ publicity stunt. Before the start of the meeting, observers had raised repeated concerns about whether the American summit represents a challenge to the hugely popular Chinese foray in Africa hat have been ongoing since 2010 when it overtook United States as Africa’s largest trading partner. Some are concerned that African countries will have to choose between the two sets of partners who are fighting for the world’s next growth frontier, a mutually exclusive choice between a China-centric trade engagements and a US-centric trade agreements and engagements tagged with human rights and good governance. Others posit that Africa countries can make that choice based on tactical concerns and progress in negotiations. Having extensively trave...

As Tanzania’s economy matures and moves higher up the value chain, it will no longer be able to rely on its rich natural resources like Diamond in Mwadui, Gold in Geita region and robust domestic consumption that has driven its growth over the past three decades. If the country wants to realise its ambition of being a top five African economies by 2025, it will have to innovate and create its own technology. For this to happen, the country needs researchers and scientists who can carry out cutting-edge research in business, media, telecommunication, medicine, sports, pharmaceuticals, consumer products and social trends. Tanzania need only look at its fellow member in South African Development Cooperation South Africa and its illustrious northern neighbour Kenya to see how far they are advancing due to investments in research and development. Several sub saharan African countries are spending a considerable chunk of their budget on research. South Africa, for example, has developed wo...