Is Africa ready to compete globally? If you read the Africa Competitiveness Report 2009 by the World Economic Forum, you get the sense that it isn’t. Although progress is being made, we still hear about the need to address the same issues around infrastructure, health, education, etc. Malik Fal, MD of Endeavor South Africa, says these are “tangible issues but not the real issue”. And competitiveness is more about creating ‘unique’ value than productivity.

The Africa Competitiveness Report suggests that nations compete and evolve along a continuum, moving from basic factors to efficiency to innovation. Dr Paul Romer, Senior Fellow at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, says: “Economic growth occurs whenever people take resources and rearrange them in ways that are more valuable.”