Learning to Solve Africa's Problems by Africans: Innovations for Addressing the Canker of Corruption

Abstract

There is a global consensus that addressing corruption and building good governance are pre-requisites for developing people, markets and the environment. Many researches on corruption and institutions measuring corruption perceptions have rated many African countries as being corrupt and suggestions for addressing corruption have been drawn mainly from developed countries without significant recourse to Africa’s specific peculiarity. This paper raises the question on whether African governments and its people are completely adamant to the problem of corruption. The paper therefore explored endogenous innovations in organisational practices, developed within African countries aimed at stifling corruption, factors stimulating the development of such innovations and how these innovations may be improved. The paper used secondary data and interviews with key informants in three African countries: Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. Endogenous innovations against corruption in Africa are mainly spearheaded by individuals as additional measures to government anti-corruption strategies. While a few of the innovations are crude in nature and may inflict punishment on a few individuals as scapegoats, they have however restraint and compelled attitudinal change among possible culprits to a large extent. Africa needs to raise a critical mass of individuals with appropriate thinking capacities and innovativeness to sustain the momentum generated by the innovations and to achieve wider impact.

Keywords: Corruption, Endogenous innovations, Africa’s sustainable development