Africa does not need Europe, Europe needs Africa

It was always a matter of helping in times of need. And that was always a good thing. Development aid has always had the best intentions, it was about alleviating the financial hardship in Africa. But development aid has now grown into an industry. There are many, many organizations that want the best, but often fail to achieve what they want due to inefficiency and the wrong assumptions.

From my point of view, this development aid industry always has something derogatory about a continent that is on the move. Yes, the continent is complex - like every continent. There is poverty and war, but not only. So we actually need something completely different. Above all, Germany should intensify economic cooperation with Africa – in partnership.

And that's why we need to abolish development aid in its current form. It's expensive. She is inefficient. And she doesn't achieve what she wants to achieve. What we need is a change of perspective. Because Africa does not need Europe. Europe needs Africa.

The African continent is young, the average age is between 20 and 25. The population is growing faster than any other in the world. 1.4 billion people already live on the continent today. In 2030 it could be 1.7 billion. Then there would be more Africans than Chinese. Last but not least, we are currently experiencing a construction boom. Forecasts assume that in the next ten years more will be built in Africa than in the past hundred years in Europe.

Six of the ten fastest growing economies in the world are on the African continent - and consumer spending is also increasing, currently by almost four percent. In 2021 it was already over $1.93 trillion. We are experiencing enormous dynamism, a new self-confidence - and a desire to succeed.

In many sectors such as technology, medicine or agriculture there is a new elite, highly educated, often abroad, and very self-confident in terms of their skills and potential. This new generation, which has gained experience in Western industrialized countries, is now coming back, getting involved, getting involved, founding companies. And that's the game changer.

Many people in African countries have long since set off into the future - mainly because the opportunities offered by digitization have been recognized. The number of start-ups is skyrocketing on the continent. Large sums of venture capital have long been flowing into Africa. And the question is: Why is Germany so reserved?

It is obvious that if half the population is younger than 20, this means that in the coming years there will be more and more people of working age who will drive the economy forward. This makes Africa the only continent in the world with a so-called “demographic dividend”.

And these young people are courageous, willing to learn and they are drawn to the cities. While it used to be the declared goal to farm and grow your own food, young people are increasingly concerned with their own value creation, driven by the will to become part of the economic system. Africa is a continent of awakening and change. And an extremely young continent also means that there is a huge potential market for start-ups and modern computer technologies, for medicine and biotechnology, a huge market for culture, for fashion, for music and film. A market for digital products, for software, for apps - for the future.

Because what many in Germany do not know: Africa is currently making an innovative leap, stages of development are simply skipped. Directly from the letter to WhatsApp - without the detour via fax or email. The continent is also far ahead when it comes to paying by smartphone. Already today there are more mobile money accounts than traditional bank accounts. Half of all mobile users use their cell phones to transfer money.

There are mobile payment platforms that enable fast money transfers even to the most remote areas and thus strengthen the purchasing power of rural regions in particular. The number of users of such platforms has long since reached double-digit millions. It is the digital financial services, the FinTechs, that pave the way to a prosperous future. In 2060 more than a billion people in Africa will belong to the new middle class. So to the layer that is the engine of every economy.

To achieve their goals, they join young, agile companies that are constantly growing. There are already hundreds of companies in Africa with sales in the billions. This includes parcel services that have revolutionized domestic and cross-border parcel shipping using artificial intelligence, payment platforms that enable e-commerce for small and medium-sized businesses.

And in addition to FinTechs, start-ups have now also been founded in Africa that are committed to more productive harvests, bridging difficult logistics chains and better health care. But what is even more important: These companies grow faster and often have a better return on sales than corporations in an international comparison. We're talking about dynamic and extremely successful start-ups here, which could also present themselves excellently at start-up trade fairs in Germany - after all, they are beacons of a rapidly growing market.

And quite a few assume that free trade and open borders will catapult African societies into a new era. This literally calls for a start-up offensive, for stronger networking between Germany and Africa.

Both politically and entrepreneurially, Africa is now indispensable for us, for Germany and Europe. And we should finally understand that. As things stand, people on the African continent will not wait for Germany. In fact, African countries are now beginning to choose their partners themselves.

It is an open secret that China has long understood this. China has been the largest investor and trading partner in Africa for years. A lot of money flows into the construction of the infrastructure and into the development of industry and trade centers. As a result, China enjoys great sympathy in Africa.

But Russia, too, has been trying – long before the Ukraine conflict – to cooperate with African states, especially on the military and security policy level. This can be seen in Mali, where Russia is increasingly taking over the role that Germany and France had previously played, and which are now being pushed further and further back. The USA is also pursuing both security policy and economic interests in Africa.

Africa has long had several options for cooperation. Be it China, Russia, USA or Turkey. They are all about to discover the enormous potential of the continent. But although Europe borders directly on Africa at its external borders, although we are "much closer" than China or Russia, we Europeans make far too little use of this strategic advantage. Closer relations with Africa are not only necessary from a security and economic point of view, but also from a geopolitical point of view. The global center of gravity is shifting more and more to Asia anyway.

And that's why, without greater engagement in Africa, we Europeans will find it even more difficult to assert our international influence. It goes without saying that good, close and stable relations with Africa also have a positive effect on questions of security and migration. Because people who have jobs start a company and create jobs themselves, in short: people who prospects will not set off to try their luck in Europe or elsewhere.

Those who have prospects in their home country do not take the risk of a dangerous escape and an uncertain future. Therefore, one of our goals must be to create even more economic, social and cultural perspectives in mutual interests in entrepreneurial cooperation. And yes, people in Africa are very open to cooperation with Europe and Germany. I am currently experiencing this myself, be it in the form of many great start-up ideas. Or - as in my case - great music and culture.

In 2018 I therefore made the professional bridge to Africa and founded the music label Afroforce1 together with my joint venture partner Universal Music Africa. It's about opening up German and European markets to African artists.

Here, too, there is great dynamism, here too we are in the process of correcting the image of Africa that still persists in old ideas. It is therefore a matter close to my heart to give the continent the status it has long had elsewhere. And if Europe completes the paradigm shift, if countries like Germany develop the potential of the African continent together with African partners, we will face a profitable future in every respect. Africa is ready, so are we.

Joe-Evans Chialo (born 1970) is a German music manager and member of the CDU federal executive board. He grew up as the son of a Tanzanian diplomatic family in Bonn. In 2016 he joined the CDU and became a direct candidate for the Berlin-Spandau constituency in 2021. We took the contribution from his recently published book "The fight goes on: My life between two worlds" (Murmann)