Post-Independence African Economies: 1960–2015

Ocran points out that the 1960s was momentous in the history of Africa. He intimates that the by the end of the 1960s, most African countries had attained political independence. The period was therefore characterised with the euphoria of independence after seventy-five years of Western European domination. Behind the veil of euphoria existed harsh realities of poignant developmental challenges: unskilled human resources, political fragility, inappropriate institutions, rapid population growth and the legacy of history. After a short spell of economic growth, the countries succumbed to the global economic difficulties following the oil crises of the 1970s. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which came to the rescue of the economies made financial support conditional on the adoption of stabilisation and structural adjustment policies. Ocran argues that after two decades of reforms, by the year 2000, the policies had failed to engender either sustained economic growth or considerable poverty reduction. He concludes by providing evidence to show development challenges still persist, even though the past two decades have witnessed a rebound of economic growth in many African countries.