The following was submitted by ASFL blog team member Babajide Oluwase

Out of a population of about 1 billion people, it is not exaggerating to say that majority of Africans are not free to make choices about who should govern them, let alone the kind of economic system to be practiced to produce the desired outcomes.

No doubt, African economies need entrepreneurs to create jobs and drive new innovations to the market. But what do the entrepreneurs need?  Economic freedom.

Why economic freedom?

Economic freedom is the key to greater opportunities and an improved quality of life. It’s the freedom to choose how to produce, sell, and use your own resources, while respecting others’ rights to do same. It is an engine that drives prosperity in the world and it is the difference between why some societies thrive and others do not. In economically free societies, government allow labour, capital, and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself.

In this year’s Index of Economic Freedom (IEF), published by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, just over 40 African economies are included in its 152-strong list. This apparently sends a message that, Africa has fundamental issues to deal with. Mauritius (10th), Botswana (36th), and Rwanda (65th) are rated as the continent’s freest economies, while Congo (168th), Equatorial Guinea (173rd), and of course, Zimbabwe (175th) wallow at the bottom of the index. The index also indicates that Sub-Saharan Africa is ranked last in seven of the ten economic freedom assessed, performing particularly poorly in three crucial areas: property rights, freedom from corruption, and business freedom. Though, better than the global average on government expenditure.

Of the world’s 26 ‘repressed’ economies, nine are in Sub-Saharan Africa, and five of those are among the ten lowest in this year’s index. Improvements are being implemented too slowly, contradicting the ‘Africa rising’ narrative that continues to be a theme at global summits.

Let’s look at the situation in Nigeria for example. The most populous black nation in the world and ‘acclaimed’ largest economy in Africa (based on rebased figures announced in April, 2014), has economic freedom score of 55.6. Making its economy the 120th freest in the 2015 Index. According to the 2015 IEF’s report, Nigeria has increased by 1.3 points since last year, with improvements in five of the 10 economic freedoms, including labour freedom, freedom from corruption, and the management of government spending, outweighing a decline in monetary freedom. Nigeria is ranked 22nd out of 46 countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, and its overall score is below the world average.

The report further opines that Nigeria’s rule of law remains weak, and the corruption that accompanies high levels of government spending and pervades the oil sector inhibits private sector growth. Strong linkage to global markets through the trade in crude oil is the only bright spot in trade and investment regimes that are protectionist and unfavourable to competition.

Nigeria continues to rank low in the Index of Economic Freedom because of the increasing role of government within the economy. Government continuously spends unearned money. Thus, increasing government spending. Unfortunately, government seems to think that more borrowing is the answer to the country’s economic problem. The private sector, particularly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), still remains engine of growth in the economy. The notion that government has the capacity to do business in Nigeria has been tested overtime and has failed with clear evidence in every sector of the economy.

Then, as now, some people have wanted government to impose regulations, tariffs, or other interventions to protect certain activities and to minimize economic risk. The truth is that, such policies would wind up strangling the creativity, productivity, competition, and access to markets that people need to flourish and prosper for economy to grow and remain strong.

Economic freedom creates prosperity, and this is evident in the case of nations like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. It is easy to forget that these nations were poor only a few decades ago. Nations that shunned the market system in favour of central economic planning, like the Soviet Union, China, and India, had economies that languished. Now that those socialist countries are moving toward economic freedom, their economies have started to grow.

The African economy has immense potentials. Its advancement however, depends largely on letting people explore the inherent opportunities. Government should restrict itself to its fundamental roles – provision of security; protection of property; and ensuring justice through sound legal systems. If African governments are serious about changing the global mindset toward Africa, they should employ Index of Economic Freedom and Human Freedom Index as roadmap for change. African leaders should take the initiative and adopt policies that create room for a free and open civil society and a free private sector that will allow all Africans to prosper. Only through this measure can a prosperous Africa be achieved.