A schoolgirl iterates through a traffic jam in Monrovia, Liberia. Photography: Jerome delay/AP.
African cities are more congested with traffic, but when will their roads blocked by cars built in Africa? In Ethiopia they try, with a range of models named after rivers Ethiopians. The Holland car brand is the result of a project led by Tadesse Tessema, which began as an import-export dealer before trying his hand in the manufacture of the car.
Holland car is supported by a Dutch investor and the cars are designed in China, which supplies parts. At the present time, the company is the production of six cars per day, but aims to increase production and to move closer to a product designed and Africa.
There are several other plants on the continent assembled produced elsewhere. For the years that Peugeot produced indestructible 504 s to seven different works, including Kaduna in Nigeria, which was tens of thousands of cars in the 1980s. But there were some attempts to build cars from the beginning to end.
Just before the Arab spring took a violent turn in Libya, Muammar Gaddafi has launched a car called the Saroukh el-Jamahiriya (Libyan Rocket), but despite its design aggressive Italian, it never reached production.
Outside of South Africa, the Kenya was the only vehicle entirely designed and developed on the continent. Former President Daniel Arap Moi has ordered the Nyayo in 1986. Four years after an unsuccessful coup, the car for all-Kenya joined other projects to give body to the ideology of the President.
The concept of Nyayo has been applied to many sectors of the economy controlled by the regime, by semi-public companies contributing to a tight control of the country. Many operated under a protectionist umbrella and Kenya become the habit of consumption of local origin.
It said that I had requested engineering at the University of Nairobi to design a car, however ugly or slow, suggesting that high performance was not a critical factor. The Central workshops of the Kenya railway and military bases were involved in the manufacture of parts for prototypes of Nyayo topped 120 km/h in tests on the road to Mombasa.
The Nyayo was not very intelligent, but his appearance had nothing to do with his failure. It simply become a source of funds misappropriated for cronies close to the regime, with not a single vehicle sold. Kenyan exploited assembling Land Rovers, Mitsubishis and Peugeot auto workers.
Despite the rise in growth during the last decade, Governments everywhere in Africa have no industrial frame policies capable of stimulating the local industry. The absence of such projects is a handicap for the future, according to a recent report of the United Nations Conference on trade and development and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
In some factories it has Africa currently produces less than 1% of the manufactured products of the world. The economy of many countries African profit from the exploitation of natural resources and foreign direct investment, but it is for Governments to establish or restore the industry that promises prosperity, independence and the end of the unemployment that dogs of the continent.
Ghanaian Economist Kingsley Y Amoako has served as Executive Secretary of the Nations United for Africa Economic and implemented Commission established the African Centre for Economic Transformation advise Governments. In a room in the African economic magazine, he stressed the need for national policies to monitor the infrastructure program launched by the African Development Bank.
Apart from the South Africa and Mauritius, no sub-Saharan countries has an industry that can compete on the world stage, and he believed that each country should set its "own vision" with policies to encourage the development of industry and services.