Seventy-five percent of Sierra Leone citizens are employed by agriculture, and this sector accounted for nearly half of the country’s GDP according to a 2012 report published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (Johnson, Johnson, Kandeh, Jalloh & Thomas, 2012). This statistic is surprising when you consider that almost half of the working-age citizens of Sierra Leone are engaged in subsistence farming (Cia.gov, 2016).

In Nigeria, a traditional trade that has existed in one form or another for at least a millennium is now threatened with the prospect of collapse.

In April 2015, the Nigerian government lifted an import ban on foreign textiles that had been in place since 2010.[1] This ban had been intended to protect domestic textile producers from a world market in which their goods were becoming increasingly uncompetitive. Now, with the ban lifted, cheap textile imports from Asia are rapidly flooding the Nigerian market.

Investing in Girls - Why Supporting Girls in Africa Makes Sense

As Caitlyn looked down at the sweet face of her sleeping baby, she recalled what the pediatrician said. “She’s developing at an above average rate.”

It filled her with happiness. It was a diametrically opposed contrast to the new mothers with babies shown in third-world countries. How heartbreaking it must be to know your baby can’t get the basic vaccinations or any other medical care. How helpless a mother would feel putting her child to bed at night, knowing she was hungry?  

“Women aged fifteen through forty-four are more likely to be maimed or die from male violence than from cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war combined.

A recent article made a convincing case for the usefulness that microfinance might offer in West Africa. Travel restrictions and program freezes put much local investment on hold during the Ebola outbreak but not that things are calming back down, there is need for investment; both for routine infrastructure improvements and a healthcare system that is prepared in the unfortunate case of a future outbreak.

What is the best model for giving aid to Africa? Is it the form of lending a small sum to a basket weaver in a remote village to turn her vocation into a flourishing business? Or, is it a large donation to help build a company with potential to expand and create dozens of jobs? The answer is both.

During a recent interview with Foreign Affairs, World Bank president Jim Yong Kim was asked about the challenges to economic development and what the institution is doing about it. He responded by naming two goals: ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity. These are rather ambitious goals but if achieved would represent a significant and positive development in addressing income inequality. However, there is a more interesting point that comes up during the interview. Mr.

80% of Americans live with the threat of poverty, joblessness, or a dependence on welfare assistance. In Kenya, 50% of the population lives under the poverty line (Associated Press).  

With the state of the globe as grim as statistics suggest, why should people outside of Africa invest in microfinance loans for African nations?