Nick Kristof On Africa

Africa rising. New York Times columnist Nick Kristof says it’s coming up fast now. And American business needs to get in the game.

A lot of Americans have long seen Africa as a vast basket case – beautiful, poor, violent, doomed.  Think again, says my guest today, Nick Kristof of the New York Times.  In the last decade, six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies - in Africa.  In the next half decade seven of the leading ten, expected to be in Africa.

It’s got huge resources, wide farmlands, factories going up.  China is famously in there like crazy - building, digging, investing.  Could this be the next “tiger,” even with all the woe?

This hour, On Point:  Africa rising, with Nick Kristof.  On the new frontier.
-Tom Ashbrook

Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist for the New York Times. He is just back from a trip to Africa, where he visited Malawi and Lesotho.

Jordan Schermerhorn, winner of Nicholas Kristof’s win-a-trip competition. She accompanied Nicholas Kristof on his 12-day Africa trip.

New York Times "If you want to understand some of the best new ideas to chip away at global poverty, an excellent place to start is the Nasoni family hut here in the southern African nation of Malawi."

New York Times "Here’s another way to think of Africa: an economic dynamo. Is it time to prepare for the African tiger economy? Six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies between 2001 and 2010 were in Africa, according to The Economist. The International Monetary Fund says that between 2011 and 2015, African countries will account for 7 of the top 10 spots."

Council On Foreign Relations "As global demand for energy continues to rise, major players like the United States, the European Union, and Japan are facing a new competitor in the race to secure long-term energy supplies: China. The economic powerhouse has increasingly focused on securing the resources needed to sustain its rapid growth, locking down sources of oil and other necessary raw materials across the globe."

Read out more on Africa and the world's fastest growing economies from the Economist.