Are Charities Killing African Entrepreneurship?

Recognizing and counteracting this cognitive bias is one of the Big Ideas that I took from economics classes. (See also Predictably Irrational.)

Here's a hypothetical discussion between an environmentalist and an economist that brought it home for me. The topic is whether to pave over something pretty to make a parking lot.

Environmentalist: If we pave over the prairie, we'll lose the prairie forever. Even if you might want to have the parking lot, you can always get the parking lot tomorrow. Don't pave!

Economist: If we don't pave over the prairie today, we'll lose the use of the parking lot tomorrow forever. There will never be a tomorrow in which we'll have the parking lot. Pave it!

Africa's current financial ecosystem is deeply flawed as there is no way or very little way to spiral outwards instead of inwards.

The current scenario is like saying to Microsoft that they can only sell their products internally in the company. It creates an inward spiral that have very hard terms for growth and is deeply depending on money from the outside.

That isn't the only, necessary alternative. There's nothing wrong with charity done right. Just because the NGO's methods are work doesn't mean one has to abandon their work altogether. If the doling out of aid is done by local entrepreneurs, and the causes of poverty are being attacked by entrepreneurs funded and overseen by NGOs, the results could be far different.

She does a good job of distinguishing between emergency aid (think Katrina or the Indian Ocean Tsunami) which she supports and permanent aid which she says supports corrupt governments and creates a culture of dependency.

What if instead of learning English and working for an NGO, these brightest and best learned English and emigrated?

What if the individuals who work for NGO, learn skills and earn cash (paid for by foreigners) that encourage them to think much bigger when it comes to enterprises in future?