Women and economic policies in Africa

Abstract

At independence, most African countries had reasonable foreign exchange reserves, for example, countries such as Ghana, Cote d'lvoire, Kenya and Zambia. Zambia, for instance, was at the time of independence from Britain in 1964, the richest country in Africa, south of the Sahara. Apart from the foreign exchange reserves, Zambia had the world's second largest copper mining industry and was endowed with a vast fertile land as well as emeralds. Ghana was also a leading producer of cocoa in the world and was equally rich in minerals like gold, diamond, bauxite and manganese. Unfortunately, these and other earnings from raw materials then in high demand by the industrialized countries were short-lived. Prices of these commodities fell and most African countries could not finance their social and economic programmes.