Reasons Why Africa Will Never Develop
Looking at all the continents spread across the globe, we realize that Africa is lagging in terms of industrial and technological development.
Hereby, we’re going to check out the various reasons why Africa will never develop. Regardless of the abundance of natural resources, the continent still remains to be the least developed in the world.


The several factors affecting the development rate in our continent have been overlooked for quite some time now thus keeping Africa at the bottom list in terms of development. These factors include:
- Corruption crisis
- Poor infrastructure
- High level of reliance/dependence on foreigners,
- Poor political systems.
Let’s delve deeper into the details.
Reasons why Africa will never develop
1. High Level of Corruption
Corruption is the leading factor hindering the development rate in the whole of Africa. Individually, most countries in Africa face the problem of corrupt leaders running the government system and manipulating resources to their own benefit. Our continent has been experiencing this problem for decades now and it has become a major crisis for overall economic growth.
From time to time, politicians vie for leadership seats in certain countries, and promise the citizens a change in the form of governance, only to end up following the same trend as their predecessors. These political leaders tend to cling to their positions of governance for decades whereby they abuse the power and exploit public resources and funds thus affecting their economy negatively.
2. Reliance on Foreign Aid
The second factor hindering the development rate of Africa is the high dependency level on Aid from foreign countries. Foreign economic aid to struggling countries in Africa has proven to be a significant income source for decades now. However, it’s so unfortunate that these countries have ended up being reliant and poorer thus making the situation even worse.
Instead of relying on foreign support from stable foreign countries, Africans should learn to survive solely using the available resources. Struggling African nations should step up their production game and stop begging and dependence on help from other countries.

3. Poor Infrastructure
Most African leaders have overlooked the state of infrastructure of their countries in the past and this has really affected the level of production in the continent. Leaders should work on improving education facilities, road structures, hospitals, and electricity distribution to make their people’s lives better.
It’s however taking more time than expected since the governments are not showing any form of urgency to improve the lifestyle of their country’s citizens. Sadly, most of them are still scrambling and exploiting their country’s resources for their own personal benefit.
4. Foreign Debts
The growth of foreign debts has become one of the most common and most experienced problems in African countries. Many African countries have a tendency of borrowing Loans from other countries to financially support their local projects. Some countries have made it a toxic habit thus totaling big debts of trillions of dollars.
Most African countries spend their income on servicing their debts and end up having a lagging economy regardless of the level of production.
5. Low Level of Technological Improvement
The state of technology development in many African nations is below average. Countries are still using ancient forms of labor in mechanized jobs thus making the level of production lower and slower. Advancement in technology is a major reason why Africa will never develop since it highly affects industrialization in a country.
6. Food Insecurity
Being the most resourceful continent on the globe, it’s so surprising and disheartening that some countries are still suffering from hunger issues. In other countries, people are even dying of hunger and having a hard time keeping up with the economic level thus depreciating the level of production.

This is an issue that results from poor leadership and governance systems since the local resources are not handled and allocated properly. Leaders should rise up and work to allocate the local resources equally to make sure all citizens are sorted. Electing leaders who understand what the citizens need is the card Africans need to pull to make things better.
7. Lack of Continental Unity
African unity has been broken and countries are divided by colonial borders thus making the ‘African Unity’ concept an improbable dream. Instead of working together as a continent, most countries are still relying on Aid from America, European Union, and countries like China. Currently, the African leaders in place are seemingly weak and reluctant to make Africa ONE stable and dependent continent.
African leaders should come together and work on uniting their countries for mutual economic benefit as a country and curb Foreign aid reliance.
8. Political Instability
This has been a long-term problem in many African countries since it is a result of corrupt leadership and governance across the continent. Instead of complaining and claiming for change in our societies, Africans should work towards cleansing their political systems by eliminating the corrupt and selfish leaders first.
Therefore, educated individuals should spread political consciousness to their fellow citizens to make sure the citizens are aware of the outcomes and repercussions of making certain political decisions. This should be done through political education campaigns and movements before elections in such countries. If corrupt leaders are banished from the system, the countries’ economies will definitely skyrocket and become better steadily.
These are the few key factors affecting the development of Africa’s economic level which is lagging compared to other continents. The illustrated reasons why Africa has not developed yet should be considered and worked upon by most of the underdeveloped countries to boost their economy.
FAQs
Being the most blessed continent in natural resources supply, the continent has however faced challenges in its development due to a few reasons. African countries’ corrupt reputation has spread across the world. The key factor influencing this is the corrupt Leadership and governance systems in some of its countries.
The reason for the slow technological development rate in Africa is due to factors like poor education systems, corruption, poor infrastructure systems, and outdated government policies. Generally, the key reason affecting tech development is the poor leadership systems in most African countries.
The most developed African country is Mauritius which is ranked at position #66 overall. Mauritius’ HDI is 804, the life expectancy of 75 years, and the Literacy rate of 91%. The country is popular for its steady free Health and Schooling system and firm economy.
Africa’s economic development has been lagging for decades now due to the governance system running most countries. Many governments have looked at the key development factors affecting their economy thus affecting the development rate negatively.