For years, Africa has stood out among the world’s regions for its lack of economic progress. That’s not the case anymore. Africa’s per capita income over the past decade has expanded at a rate nearly identical to that of the rest of the world. As indicated by writer David Leonhardt, a middle class has begun to develop in West Africa, from Ghana and Nigeria down to Angola.
Several highly impoverished nations, including Ethiopia and Liberia, are now making rapid progress. As economic development proceeds and as population expands, one of the main issues facing Africa is food. African farm productivity is low. For instance, Africa’s farmers presently deliver one-fifth the yield on corn that American farmer do. One of the major players in the area of agricultural productivity has been the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Better known for its efforts to diminish disease in Africa, it has spent more than $3 billion on African agriculture grants. According to the Foundation, a more efficient African agricultural sector can "drive massive poverty reduction and improve life across the continent." The Gateses go on to write that "the lives of poor countries will improve faster in the next 15 years than at any other time in history."
