I can say there are several reasons why the continent is poor. One they were impoverished with slave trade for 400 years by the Europeans. Two, their political independence was disrupted by the creation of artificial non-functional countries made up of tribes and ethnic groups whose outlooks were tangential one to another. Their economic independence was altered through displacement of native cultures and the imposition of western values that made the continent dependent on foreign import instead of local production. Agencies such as World Bank and IMF see to it that indigenous economic models are not exploited to solve the problems of Africa.