Technological dependence in Africa: its nature, causes, consequences and policy derivatives
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Date
1996
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Publisher
Technovation
Abstract
Technology is critical to development because it is a resource which endows
economic growth with much of its capacity for satisfying human wants.
Whether the need is for more food, better education, improved housing,
health care, transportation and telecommunication, increased industrial
output, etc., modern technology plays a decisive role, particularly as it
enhances the efficiency of resource utilization, spurs the creation and
expansion of resources (e.g. physical capital) and diminishes the importance
of natural factor endowment in economic progress. It is this developmental
role of technology that makes its acquisition or the capability for generating
it important and underscores the need for its importation in Africa, given the
continent's inability to source it locally.
It is, however, the contention of this study that African countries' reliance
on technology imports has not only inhibited local technological development
efforts in the continent, but has also contributed, in a rather cumulative
manner, to the distorted development or underdevelopment of the African
economy. Unless concerted efforts are made to build up a strong indigenous
scientific and modern technological development capability that can
guarantee some degree of self-reliance in technological matters, any hope for
a rapid and internally stimulated development of the African economy will
remain as a mere illusion.
Description
Staff Publication