Friday, October 27, 2006

World's richest prize to be awarded to most effective african leaders.

A $5m prize for Africa's most effective head of state is being launched by Africa's top businessman. UK-based wireless phone mogul, Mo Ibrahim, the mastermind, believes the incentive will motivate heads of states in poor nations to do what's best for their people instead of their bellies.

The prize will be exceeding the Nobel prize which is estimated to be $1.3m and was applauded by Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Bill Clinton and a few others. But spurred equal scepticism from some critics, including Patrick Smith, of specialist publication Africa Confidential, who believes those leaders already doing good will keep on, but the corrupted ones won't change anything because they know they won't qualify at the end of their term since Harvard University will be assessing how well the president has served his or her people while in office.

More than 300 million africans live on less than a dollar a day, but the continent has one of the richest concentration of precious minerals if not the richest on earth.