Lagos Tragedy

Lagos Building Collapse

You may have seen the news of the tragic building collapse in Lagos. The three-story building housed shops and apartments as well as a nursery and preschool. The children were there when the tragedy took place. Many were trapped inside.

Nigerians are unfortunately accustomed to poor or no enforcement of building regulations. The building that collapsed had been marked for demolition because of shoddy construction and maintenance, but the landlord had refurbished it and rented it out.

In a second article related to the event, The New York Times reported on demolitions taking place two days later near the site. With little warning, the process of taking down more than 100 buildings began. Some residents returned home at the end of the day to find their building gone!

This article also reported on the death toll from the Wednesday collapse. “On Friday, a health official told Reuters that 20 people had been killed and dozens more injured. Many of the dead were children,” the NY Times said.

I can barely imagine the grief of the parents and grandparents of the children who died. They must also be very angry at the government’s lack of oversight of a condemned building. So sad.

Chocolate Bars From Bicycle Power

I loved this story from Africa News. An entrepreneur in Ivory Coast is using bicycle power to grind cocoa beans to make her organic chocolate products.

Ivory Coast is the largest grower of cocoa beans in the world but produces little chocolate. Like many raw materials from Africa, most of the beans are exported and the finished products imported, so others reap the profits – think Nestle, Cadbury, and Hershey.

The woman in charge, Mroueh, says her chocolate bars have an authentic taste. She seeks out organic beans, not easy to find, and doesn’t roast them or use additives. So the bars retain a more natural flavor.

“In the middle of the floor of her company Mon Choco’s factory sits a grinding bike, surrounded by large trays of carefully sorted cocoa beans. Poured in a funnel, beans are transformed into a paste by a grinder activated through pedaling,” the article says.

Her customers say they appreciate the taste of the real cocoa pods.

“Mon Choco and other initiatives of the same kind are developing in Ivory Coast but represent a niche market of only 5,000 tonnes of beans per year, in a country that produces over 2 million tonnes every year,” the article concludes.

Creating Successful Entrepreneurs in Africa

Mroueh’s chocolate business may remain small, since her products are expensive to produce and thus out of reach of many in the country. The article didn’t say if she is exporting.

But there are entrepreneurs who have achieved major success in Africa. Business people who are able to keep their products within reach of the local market and meet a need can have amazing results.

John Campbell invited a guest blogger, Jennifer Spies, to write Innovating Africa Out of Poverty for his March 5 edition of African in Transition.

Spies interviewed the co-author of a new book on disruptive innovation, The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out Of Poverty.

Efosa Ojomo is a Nigerian-born scholar and researcher. He is the co-author. He describes Celtel, a mobile phone company started by Mo Ibrahim. He names two others, “Fyodor Biotechnologies, manufacturer of noninvasive malaria tests, and Lifestores Pharmacy, which is increasing access to affordable drugs.”

Their keys to success? Ojomo says, “These businesses all have one thing in common: their products are so simple, affordable, and accessible that they’re able to reach many people—allowing the businesses to prosper and the local economies to benefit from their growth.”

There are major benefits to the countries too, not just to the business leaders. They generate revenue in the form of taxes, they provide employment, and they create a “virtuous economic development cycle.”

Foreign aid can be helpful, he says, but is not the solution – it doesn’t really eliminate poverty.

His comments on corruption strike me as overly optimistic. He suggests the efforts to end corruption are usually not successful. He wants countries to focus instead on other ways to achieve prosperity. As market innovators meet success, corruption will decline.

He also said we should remember the US 200 years ago, in a similar state to developing countries today. The process of development is long and slow.

I don’t think it’s comparable. The Western colonizers and countries took so much from African and Latin American lands, using the stolen products – and people – to develop their own economies.

Then they left the former colonies to “develop” on their own, without repaying any of what they had taken! I’ve just started reading a book called Divide that discusses this topic. I’ll keep you posted.

Two Second Prize Wins from the Connecticut Press Club 

I won 2nd place in two categories of the 2018 Connecticut Press Club competition!

One was for my new book, Breaking Kola: An Inside View of African Customs, which I entered in the non-fiction category.

My post which had the story about the book and movie, The Hate U Give, was the 2nd place winner in the blog category. My grand-daughter Nkiru contributed to that post, so she shares the honor!

The award ceremony is in May. I hope Jane Green, well-known Westport author, will be the emcee again. She enjoys saying my name, although I don’t remember if second place winners are announced.

And congrats to my publicist Aline Weiller who won first place in two categories!