Are African countries aware of their own mineral wealth? Ghana and Rwanda offer two very different answers

By Gerald Arhin, Research Fellow in the Political Economy of Climate Compatible Development , UCL
Pritish Behuria, Reader in Politics, Governance and Development, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester

Imagine running a business for over a century without knowing what’s in your warehouse. That’s essentially what many African countries are doing with their mineral wealth. Governments across the continent still have very little knowledge of what lies beneath their soil.

Between the 18th and 20th centuries, European colonial powers exploited African mineral wealth for their industrialisation. Post-independence, many African nations nationalised their mining sectors. International pressure led to privatisation in the 1980s. This weakened the motivation and capacity of governments to…

Read complete article

~	No one holds the government to account on spending. We need a budget watchdog that can bite

~	Triple whammy: how 3 types of drought crippled southern Australia this year

~	Pharmacists could one day work in GP clinics. Here’s what’s in it for you

~	Wikipedia’s ‘neutrality’ has always been complicated. New rules will make questioning it harder

~	Often parents and schools disagree about whether something is ‘bullying’: what happens next?

~	Your say: week beginning August 11

~	Eddington ends with a dark joke about disability – but its punchline is centuries old

~	‘Better Than Chocolate’ highlights lost 90s decade of lesbian Canadian cinema

~	As the status quo shifts, we’re becoming more forgiving when algorithms mess up

~	The bacteria killing sea stars in the Pacific: How our team uncovered a decade-long mystery