Most successful people stand for something they believe in. They continue standing for it until tens of thousands and subsequently millions of millions of people join them in standing even taller than they stood. Mark Zuckerberg stood tall for facebook in 2004. Millions of people cannot live without Facebook in 2018. George Weah ran for President of Liberia in 2005. He lost the majority votes to Ellen Sirleaf Johnson. He was criticized as incompetent and as someone who would never win the office of the President of Liberia. He stood tall for over 12 years. Ran again in 2017 and successfully won. We have discussed 2 individual examples, let’s discuss 5 country examples of developed-for-a-purpose that tell us why many African nations are not yet ready for business. Similar to how successful people develop-for-a-purpose, countries are also developed-for-a-purpose by leaders and citizens alike. This is what helps most countries to expand internationally and maximize economic growth.

1. Italy is known for her Italian leather and Italian handbags. The country is well-branded as a fashion empire for the world seeking luxurious designer leather goods. Majority of the topmost leather fashion products in the world are designed in Italy. Vero Cuoio has become a symbol for high-end leather. Italian fashion has become synonymous with high-quality fashion goods ranging from patent leather to snakeskin. Many emerging brands seek to produce their fashion lines through Italian partnerships.  Italy competes notably with France in terms of high-quality fashion and leather goods. Designers such as Louis Vuitton, Balmain and Chanel are produced predominantly in France. Whereas designers such as Valentino, Versace, Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci are produced mostly in Italy. Aside fashion, Italian pizza has similarly gained popularity globally with many Italians springing up successful restaurants globally.
2. The United Arab Emirates built Dubai purposefully for tourism. Millions of people around the world pour in revenue to the country from tourist activities. The process of obtaining visa to visit the UAE is friendly. Emirates airline expanded very rapidly since early 2000s and heavily promoted tourism in Dubai inclusive of offering free hotel stays and customer-friendly promotional activities. Dubai has several notable attractions for tourists from great malls to the world’s best hotels including the only 7-star hotel in the world, Burj Al Arab. Dubai’s taxi system is also very well managed, efficient and effective.
3. The United States and The United Kingdom are constantly, strategically and competitively touted as world’s best countries thus they get a flock of amazing immigrants from around the world. Immigrants help grow, develop and contribute to better standards of living for developed countries that manage the immigration process well. Visas to these countries are very expensive and despite paying a lot of money upfront, many immigrants get rejected. The few that get accepted go on to work hard and contribute to making these countries greater. These countries generate a lot of revenue from immigration services.
4. China is known as the manufacturing domain of the world. They’re known for their cheap prices and mass production. They are known as the country where you would find almost any and every equipment, machine or product you may be looking for. Sometimes these goods are cheap, low quality or created with child labour. Nonetheless, most people flock to China when looking for business deals or products to grow their business. China’s notoriety contributed to the success of Alibaba.com.
5. Saudi Arabia is popularly known for being a Muslim country with over 15 million people around the world visiting Mecca annually. Saudi Arabi is fiercely religious for Islam. The rules governing the country are mostly Islamic laws. 2 popular annual Muslim events, Hajj and Umrah, generate over $18 billion annually for the Saudi Arabian economy.

African countries must believe in the growth capabilities of their resources, products, services and culture and stand tall nuturing every single potential and possibility till the world flocks in millions. Nigeria should today be known as the oil giant of the world. Botswana today should be known as the Diamonds giant of the world. Liberian food should be popularized gobally for it’s rich health benefits. Each African country must stand tall for something, for many things; increase intra Africa trade and grow into world’s bests. Citizens of African countries must stand tall in unity for economy boosters and economic growth activities. As the Nigerian motto states: Unity, Peace and Progress.

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If success is what you really want, you must read Olatorera Oniru’s Book “Ayamahi: The World Needs Africa”, The Ambitious Leadership  Story of Success by an African, within Africa, is highly inspirational and educational. The book is certainly one of Africa’s Best and a must-read by all.

Olatorera Consultancy Limited provides business development services to high net-worth individuals and companies looking to grow, enter or do business in Africa.