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Oh Africa

Hard currency such as gold, platinum, silver, gems, etc. can be found abundantly in Africa, the continent containing some of the world's poorest nations. Why is it that African nations can't seem to be first world entities yet if their money is right in their backyard?

Africa Oh

I don't know. I would like to know the answer for this question too. Some people say something with the land itself, not being very productive but for me it has to do with its history and with the amount of wars going on there who obviously affect the economy in many ways.

Oh Africa History & Civil Business Politics

Although the materials are abundant, the means to get to them are not. Setting up any kind of mining operation requires a tremendous amount of capital, and the only entities who can afford to this are the giant mining companies, namely DeBeers.
In the case of Africa, companies like DeBeers (which controls 70% or more of the world's supply of diamonds, simiar to the OPEC cartel) go into a place where diamonds have been found, buy out any competition surrounding them, set up operations, hire cheap local labor, and take all of the diamonds out and sell them at highly controlled prices. The impovrished nations in Africa can't take advantage of their natural resources simply because they don't have the neccessary supplies to do so. Even if they did, it is highly doubtful that they would be able to compete against the monolithic companies who run the show.