Cape Town – The continent’s three richest men
have more wealth than 650 million
Africans.
This was revealed yesterday at the Commission on Global Economic Transformation (CGET) and Oxfam dialogue discussing Africa’s Economic Transformation along with the launch of the Oxfam Inequality in Africa report titled “A Tale of Two Continents”.
The report detailed that the richest 0.0001% own 40% of the wealth of the entire continent.
“Africa’s three richest billionaire men have more wealth than the bottom 50% of the population of Africa, approximately 650million people. Meanwhile, Africa is rapidly becoming the epicentre of global extreme poverty,” the report said.
Executive director of Oxfam International and CGET commissioner Winnie Byanyima said: “We are sounding the alarm that extreme inequality is out of control in Africa.
"It is humiliating African people. We are stuck in poverty and because it is so wide, it is difficult to lift themselves out.
“In the report we talk about the problem of inequality and how it manifests itself. We also talk about the solutions for it. It is sounding an alarm but it is also hopeful and optimistic.
“Africa’s three richest men have more wealth than Africans. Their wealth is more than what 650 million Africans own.
“There is something unjust about that. Sometimes, at Oxfam, we are accused of being jealous but it’s not that we are jealous.
“It is problematic. This extreme inequality puts a brake on all the efforts the world is making towards eradicating poverty,” said Byanyima.
According to the report, while massive reductions in the numbers living on less than $1.90 (R28) a day have been achieved in Asia, these numbers are rising in Africa.
The World Bank estimates that 87% of the world’s extreme poor will be from Africa by 2030, if current trends continue.
The report also found that levels of gender inequality in Africa were among the highest in the world.
“In Kenya, a boy from a rich family has a one-in-three chance of continuing his studies beyond secondary school.
“A girl from a poor family has a 1-in-250 chance of doing so,” the report said.
President of the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa, Fatima Denton, said: “Africa is a continent which is hugely rich in natural resources, where 67% of the resident natural resources are used globally, but exist with poor people.
“Climate change is one of the driving forces of this inequality.
“The impacts of climate change do not know any boundaries or borders. But Africa is the continent that will be worst hit and affected by climate impacts and the people will be the bearers of the problem for the foreseeable future,” Denton said.
Four round table discussions were held as part of the dialogue, which also looked at the importance of transformational leadership, economic transformation, job creation, education and technology transformation.
“Some of the problems that we are experiencing on the continent can be turned around if we begin to have leadership that draws its power from the people and is looking to the people as central to transformational development.
“In other words, we cannot afford not to take people with us; they are at the very centre of this development.”