What is the single largest impediment that makes it impossible for a continent such as Africa - which is geographically bigger than India, China, US and most of Europe combined together, endowed with immense reserves of discovered & undiscovered natural resources and pitted to have the largest working age population in the world by 2035 - from putting a lid on the rampant corruption, breaking the shackles of poverty and ending its dependency on the financial largesse of the developed world?

Dependency on the US dollar and the ridiculously high cost of capital it brings!

Dollar pegged local currencies which are probably worth more in scrap than in actual denominations, are a norm in Africa. In fact, the dollars themselves flow more freely and are more readily accepted (if not preferred)- from mega to micro-level local transactions - more than anywhere else in the world outside the United States.

Dollar denominated notes are the default currency of choice here for hoarding ill-gotten wealth, off-legal lending & trading and for running illicit as well as some seemingly legit businesses; businesses that still rely on exploitative arbitrage opportunities as their core business model.

These dollars travel a circuitous route of over-invoiced payments, under-valued asset purchases/imports, pure/hybrid cash deals, over-the-counter suitcase/duffel bag exchanges and trust-based shady third-party settlements. Most of these dollars have never had the pleasure of visiting the coffers of any central bank in this continent. The result... A booming, albeit short-term market for traders and fly-by-night businesses, run at the cost of keeping the local workforce unemployed/underemployed or underpaid and the country poor, its infrastructure in shambles and no escape from the strangulating clutches of debt in the near horizon.

What then... can this bunch of so-called hapless underdeveloped/developing nations do... considering the global hegemony of the US dollar?

Quite a bit actually!

1. Get together.... in manageable and realistic consortiums and float a regional, supranational cryptocurrency. Something on the lines on the existing collaboration and cooperation trade structures... Say a "SADC Coin" or a "EAC coin". This has the promise to bolster regional liquidity, end the dependency on dollar for regional trade and bring down the cost of capital for small and medium business significantly.

2 ‎Embrace the digital start-ups and their up-start millennial members. Incubate and experience their cultural microcosm and adapt if not adopt. Harness their energies, provide them with a direction and give them room for experimentation and growth.

3. Encourage and spearhead the development, adoption and use of blockchain based Anti-money laundering solutions for monitoring and management of illicit transactions that make their way into mainstream banking and trading channels.

4. Encourage integration of existing mobile payment networks and service providers with digital cryptocurrency and blockchain based smart contracts to scale their adoption, reach and utility.

5. ‎Leapfrog out of the stock market mainstreaming and IPO listing quest which they have been unsuccessfully trying to adopt & emulate from the west for decades. It was never designed for Africa! Encourage and Adopt a Regulated ICO (Initial Coin Offering) framework and platform which is customized and adapted to enable independent listing of local, real-world businesses… not just digital.

6. ‎Draft a progressive Regional Regulatory Framework that seeks to meaningfully leverage these new technological opportunities, safeguards retail investor interests and facilitates regulated micro-level participation- of the otherwise underserved and unbanked population - in adoption of digital tokens and cryptocurrency.

Africa ‎needs to lead the way for the rest of the world and show them how to effectively leverage and make use of technological advances for sustainable and inclusive growth. Emerging technologies like the blockchain offer Africa a second chance to wake up, assert itself and redeem its rightful place in the world order.

Only irrational fear of the unknown and short-sightedness of the regional political and intellectual influencers can destroy this chance and dance to glory…not the US dollar!

It would be naïve to assume this is going to be easy... But I, for one, think this is do-able and do-worthy.

Let me know what you think!