HARMONIZATION OF BUSINESS LAWS IN AFRICA: THE CONFLUENCE OF OUADA AND NIGERIA COMPANY LAW

The eradication of mass poverty is the greatest challenge facing contemporary Africa. The direct result of our history has been the fragmentation of the continent into small and barely viable political and economic states. The fall out of this balkanization is the underdevelopment, poverty. exploitation and marginalisation of Africa within the global economy. These have festered inimical consequences, the grave picture which the nascent gale of globalization has helped to throw up. Thus, a child in Africa dies of disease, famine, or conflict every three seconds; 200 million people have no access to health service; 46% of the population of sub-saharan Africa, all most half, live on less than one USA dollar per day; average income per capital is lower now than at the end of the 1960’s; one in five of the population, that is 20% are affected by conflicts; over 25 million Africans suffer from HIV/AIDS virus; 46 million primary aged children are not enrolled in schools and over 60% of these are girls’. The fundamental challenge is how to lift Africa out of this doldrum of poverty and debt. The answer is trade. The Jong term solution is not in aid but in trade. Trade is the criterion for economic development. A situation where Africa owes over $600 billion dollars in external debt and contributes a partly 2% to world trade” is unacceptable.