Most foreign aid programs are poorly structured, fungible, insincere and conditional; providing aid through government agencies in poor countries makes accountability worse; and aid leads to chronic dependency, according to Andrew Rugasira in his book A Good African Story: How a Small Company Built a Global Coffee Brand. What African really needs is trade, not aid, and to prove his point, the author set up a successful African coffee exporting company.
The book tells the surprisingly engrossing story of the challenges and obstacles faced by an African entrepreneur in starting and growing a business. Interestingly, the biggest challenges were not in dealing with a corrupt business environment or bureaucratic inefficiencies. Instead, they were the same types of challenges faced by entrepreneurs in developed countries, only magnified: gaining access to capital, establishing credibility with suppliers and customers, networking, gaining entry to markets, and keeping the creditors at bay.
An interesting aspect of the story is the way in which the prosperity of the enterprise is tied to the prosperity of the farmers who supply the coffee beans. In order to produce high quality coffee, careful attention needs to be paid to the growing conditions. The coffee farmers have to be convinced that their extra efforts will be justly rewarded, and they have to acquire money management skills in order to run their farms well. Thus the author’s business has to invest in farmer education and setting up Savings and Credit Co-operatives, making it a natural kind of social enterprise.
Another interesting aspect of the story is the author’s personal faith journey. Although we are not told much about his Christian beliefs, it is apparent that they have had a significant influence on his business decisions, which he makes not just as a self-seeking entrepreneur but as a leader who understands how the well-being of many people depends on his persistence and careful stewardship of his company’s resources.
Most “solutions” to African poverty are conceived and imposed by Westerners without adequately consulting the intended beneficiaries, and accordingly they do not work. Other “solutions” are conceived by self-interested African elites, and they serve only to enrich the already rich at the expense of the poor. This book shows that there are genuine African solutions to African problems, and we should be doing everything we can to encourage the growing band of entrepreneurs who are making such a difference.