The Prepaid Economy: African Edition

SPIEGEL: Where are Africans supposed to get money if development aid dries up?

Moyo: They should get a credit rating to show that they want to be fully integrated into global financial markets. As a second step, they could issue bonds. The financial market would penalize those countries that failed to redeem them later.

SPIEGEL: How realistic is it to expect that American retirement funds or German insurance companies will someday invest their money in Liberia or Malawi?

Moyo: Sixty percent of Africans are younger than 24 years old. They are burning to become part of the global Facebook-Twitter community. They want to have plasma TVs like young people in Europe. Africa is a market. The West is missing its chance here.

SPIEGEL: We’re talking about a continent on which there is war, murder and rape in many places.

Moyo: Much of that is exaggerated. What are the images we get about Africa from TV? Usually it’s just flies on the face of some starving child in Somalia. Have you recently heard any good news coming out of Africa?

SPIEGEL: No one can argue that there aren’t all sorts of wars and crises on the continent. Do you really think that market forces can correct the things that have gone wrong there?

Moyo: I believe the market can have a disciplining effect. Whoever governs poorly will be eliminated. If this were the case, investors would have to say: “We won’t invest any money in your country until you solve your problems.” In that way, Africans would experience what some European countries are going through right now.