Page 314 - Volume 2_CHANGES_merged_with links

Obstacles to progress

Distortions

 Opportunity Costs for an African family.

At some time, these will overlap and merge to make an overall opportunity cost. An
opportunity cost that simply goes on and on accumulating to a larger and larger amount

year by year.

The African family opportunity cost.
For many years now, the UK government has worked on an understanding that amongst

the poorer sections of society, getting just one of children to get a university education will
lift that family out of poverty. And permanently so. The family’s circumstances will have

been permanently changed for the better.
In many under-developed African countries, one of the commonest personal

statements you will hear about how this person or that was not able to complete their

education. It may be that the family ran out of money to pay the fees for higher education.
It may be that the child / teenager was needed to help work the family 'farm'.

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When the INGO import a 'zuŋ u for in-country operations, they deprive another
African family of a life-changing opportunity.
The cost is much more than a simple loss of income. The graduate developed to a

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professional standard by an INGO will earn over a lifetime a fortune at 'zuŋ u payment
levels compared to the sort of low-level that many African graduates actually earn in what
otherwise are often only one of the 'hospitality' or similar opportunities available to them.

This lifetime accumulation of wealth will produce its own spin offs.
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None of this happens when INGO import their own 'zuŋ u staff.
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The African state opportunity cost.
Any reader who has digested the 'Challenges' section of this narrative will find it easy to

understand to what extent the pace of development of an under-developed nation can be

tied to the speed in which that nation builds up a body of professionals who form the core
of government and regulatory bodies, professional institutions and commercial

enterprises.
Each time an INGO recruits one more suitably educated, but otherwise experienced

local African, it helps in the overall development of an African country’s pool of

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professionals. Each imported 'zuŋ u robs an African country of yet one more