Dr. Adarkwah Antwi

The famous Peruvian Economist and three-time noble nominee has asked in his award winning book “The Mystery if Capital” “why [does] capitalism triumph in the West and fails everywhere else?”. His answer is simple. Sound, secure and divestible property rights made all the difference. Property rights is an honest acquisition of one’s property. In a rule-based society, one should be able to use property to secure a loan or a mortgage for further investment in the economy.

The absence of property rights means that service (water, energy and market exchange) provision and delivery would be affected.

Sadly, its absence in most of Africa was not the norm, but a complete reversal of pre-colonial culture of communal as well as individual land ownership by rent seeking independent African leaders, and sadly by present day leaders.

Dr Adarkwah will explore why this basic concept of wealth creation eludes Africa and also make the distinction between tangible and intangible property or physical and intellectual property rights.