Intellectual capital, Africa's path to poverty alleviation, says Emeagwali

DR Philip Emeagwali, U.S.-based Nigerian computer Scientist, says intellectual capital was needed to produce products and services that will lead Africa to the path of poverty alleviation.

Emeagwali made the observation in a lecture Entitled: "Ideas, not Money, Alleviate Poverty", which he delivered at the University of Alberta, U.S., recently.

The computer scientist said that intellectual capital, which comprised the collective knowledge of people, was what increases productivity.

"Productivity by driving economic growth alleviates poverty, always and everywhere, even in Africa. Productivity is the engine that drives global economic growth.

"The power of intellectual capital is the ability to breed ideas that ignite value,'' he stressed.

Emeagwali added that the quote was a clarion call to African leaders to shift purposefully and deliberately from a focus on things to a focus on information.

"From exporting natural resources to exporting knowledge and ideas and from being a consumer of technology to becoming a producer of technology,'' he said.

He said that poverty in Africa would be reduced when intellectual capital was increased and leveraged to export knowledge and ideas.

He pointed out that Africa's primary strategy for poverty alleviation was to gain debt relief assistance and investment from western nations.

"On the contrary our strategy for poverty alleviation should mean looking beyond 100 per cent literacy and aiming for 100 per cent numeracy, the pre-requisite for increasing our technological intellectual capital,'' he explained.

Emeagwali said it was sad that in this age when poverty alleviation should result in producing valuable products for global market and competing with Asia, the U.S and Europe, "shamefully, diamonds found in Africa are polished in Europe and re-sold to Africa''.