Abstract:
Africa remains the poorest continent in the world. Intellectuals from Africa and
the broader international community have advanced many reasons for poverty and
underdevelopment on the continent. Reasons provided include slavery, geography,
poor health, culture, globalisation and colonialism. This article acknowledges
that these reasons do, to an extent, contribute to the continent’s developmental
challenges. However, arguably poor governance is the main developmental
obstacle in sub-Saharan Africa. As such, the authors believe that good governance
is the core catalyst to facilitate development. Thanks to good governance, other
parts of the world that were subjected to the same historical trajectory of slave
trade and colonialism have managed to show profound growth. Notably, focus on
good governance was particularly effective in developing parts of South America.
The article concludes that unless sub-Saharan Africa adopts this type of good
governance approach, the dream of development may continue to be elusive.
