Nigeria's Maladjusted Middle Class

Babatunde Ahonsi in 234Next writes about Nigeria's defective middle class:Too many of its members are bogged down with devising and pursuing private or individual solutions to macro and collective problems. The resultant strong sense of insecurity about its future well-being is therefore undermining its capacity to think trough what it needs to do to address the root causes of the situation. It

The Beautiful Tree

Liam Julian reviews James Tooley's The Beautiful Tree:In slums around the world, from Lagos, Nigeria and Nairobi, Kenya to rural villages in Ghana and China and places in between, Tooley has discovered poor people opening small private schools that offer alternatives to dismal or inaccessible public education. The schools charge only pennies a day, and most also provide scholarships to orphans or

Not Caring about Our Women

Juliette Tuakli of Child and Associates in the Stimulist:If we don’t start systemically supporting African mothers and re-conceiving the role and relevance of African women, we simply will not enjoy sustained economic development in Africa. Full stop. As things stand, the continent’s considerable “female resources” — agricultural skills, negotiation, commitment to infrastructure development and,

Quick Hits

An architect of Singapore's astounding economic growth-via Ethan ZuckermanInvesting and empowering farmers-GuardianNurturing an industrial renaissance in Ghana.Africa,Business destination-TIMEFavoring poor governments over poor people-Aidwatch