Without requisite capital, realising economic transformation objectives would turn into a fantasy, experts drawn from various sectors have pointed out in several forums.
Lately, former Central Bank Governor, Tito Mboweni, added credence to that observation. He bemoaned the snail’s pace at which the economy was being transformed.“We need deep-seated economic transformation. We cannot proceed like we have been doing.”
Mboweni was not being alarmist. Two decades into the country’s democracy, black citizens on average earn a sixth of what their white counterparts do and 1.9 million households have no income.
“We need capital in order to drive economic transformation,” Mboweni said. “Without capital, we are behaving like we are in a French breakfast picnic.”
Mboweni recommended a “bold, decisive, courageous and responsible action” to be taken to transform the economy. His observation should strike a chord, as someone who has been in the private sector for close to a decade.
We have to put money where our mouths are, otherwise we will be chasing a mirage. Mouthing platitudes does not work with no substance.