Oil Price Making Some Africans Richer, Others Poorer

High oil prices are creating the best of times and worst of times for Africa. That is according to several experts speaking this week at an oil industry conference in South Africa. For the handful of countries that export oil, times are good. But times are tough for everyone else.
Continent wide, rising oil prices are likely to hurt Africa more than help it. That is according to independent analyst Simon Ratcliffe. He told delegates at the Oil Africa Conference that poorer nations have fewer resources to withstand rising energy costs.

“Each county has a threshold of what they can bear before it significantly affects their economies,” said Simon Ratcliffe. “And within countries you have personal thresholds of what people or families can bear, and again it primarily affects the poorest.”

Ratcliffe says these effects include electricity blackouts, slower economic development, higher food prices and political instability. Others at the conference predicted the growth of a middle class in Africa will make the situation worse.

Voice of America