Why Africa Waits While Asia Builds

Africa’s economic potential has long been overshadowed by its inability to translate vision into tangible progress. Kenya, often regarded as East Africa’s most dynamic economy, exemplifies this paradox - boasting ambitious plans yet struggling with systemic inefficiencies that stifle growth. Meanwhile, Asian nations like Vietnam and Singapore have surged ahead by prioritizing execution over rhetoric.

At the heart of Kenya’s development conversation lies a contradiction: energetic visions versus sluggish implementation. President William Ruto and his cabinet speak boldly about investment, housing, and industrialization. Yet, as noted by Doanh Chau, President of Vietnam Gas, what’s missing is not ambition but “serious execution culture.”

Why Development in Africa Is So Difficult

This gap between idea and action is emblematic of a broader continental dilemma. While countries like Vietnam and Singapore deliver measurable outcomes, many African states remain stuck in a cycle of policy proclamations without practical follow-through. The world is moving. Asia is building. Africa is waiting.

Execution: The Core Deficiency

Execution, not ideas, builds economies. Vietnam offers a sharp contrast. In the early 1990s, it was poorer than Kenya. Today, it’s a global manufacturing hub. What changed?

Vietnamese leadership emphasized metrics over media. Officials begin their day by 5 a.m., review execution dashboards, and iterate on policy - quietly and persistently. Singapore, too, operates with razor-sharp efficiency. Civil servants work under strict KPIs, and delivery is non-negotiable.

Kenya, by contrast, rewards appearances. Political capital is earned through speeches, summits, and symbolic launches. Grand plans are unveiled - affordable housing, digital cities, green energy corridors - only to stall in procurement battles, legal bottlenecks, or informal patronage networks.

A 2022 report by the Institute of Economic Affairs found that nearly 40% of national government projects were behind schedule, often by more than two years.

Electricity: Development’s Litmus Test

Chau’s starkest indictment was Kenya’s energy situation. Power isn’t a peripheral issue, it’s a foundational enabler of economic activity. Without it, factories sit idle, hospitals falter, and investors walk away.

Power Supply Capacity (2023)

Country	Population	Power Capacity	Electrification Rate
Vietnam	100M	70.5 GW	99.3%
Kenya	50M	4.1 GW	76.5%
South Africa	59M	48.0 GW	91.0%

(Source: International Energy Agency, World Bank)

The scale of disparity is not just in quantity, but also reliability. Kenya Power’s daily outages affect everything from SMEs to urban slums. A 2023 KNBS survey showed that 65% of manufacturing firms experienced power interruptions weekly, forcing over half of them to rely on diesel generators - a cost passed onto consumers and investors.

By contrast, Vietnam built its power generation capacity before launching its industrial zones. This sequencing matters. Energy attracts industry; not the other way around.

Tourism: An Untapped Goldmine

Kenya is one of the few countries where luxury wildlife and coastline experiences exist in a single destination. Yet the potential remains largely unexploited due to operational inefficiencies.

Tourists arriving for safaris still face 90-minute manual check-ins at park gates, even when they’ve booked online. After 9 PM, most towns go silent. There’s little in the way of nightlife, cultural performances, or structured retail experiences.

Singapore’s Marina Bay, by comparison, generates over $4 billion annually in tourist revenue through entertainment, shopping, and nighttime attractions. Kenya’s figure hovers below $1.8 billion—and much of it is seasonal. Singapore’s tourism sector posted a strong performance in 2024, with Tourism Receipts (TR) likely to reach the upper bound of STB’s 2024 forecast1, setting a new record in tourism spend. International Visitor Arrivals (IVA) increased by 21% (compared to 2023) to 16.5 million, showing robust growth in visitor arrivals.

A report by the Kenya Tourism Federation in 2023 noted that the average tourist only spends about 2.1 days inland, compared to over 7 days in competing destinations like Thailand or Morocco. The problem isn’t demand; it’s the absence of thoughtful, experience-based infrastructure.

The Policy Problem: Inconsistency and Disincentive

When policies change with every cabinet shuffle or election cycle, investors lose trust. Kenya’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs), for instance, have been restructured three times in five years. That’s not reform, it’s noise.

More troubling, Kenya offers few meaningful performance-based incentives. Tax breaks, subsidies, or access to infrastructure are often awarded based on proximity to political power rather than clear deliverables.

In contrast, Vietnam’s Da Nang SEZ is built around export volume, job creation, and technology transfer benchmarks. Investors know what success looks like—and what they’ll earn for achieving it.

A survey by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) in 2022 found that 68% of foreign investors viewed policy inconsistency as a “high-risk factor” for long-term planning.

Mindset Over Money: The Need for Mental Infrastructure

“Africa doesn’t lack potential - it lacks a mindset shift.” Chau’s words are piercing. Too often, development is framed around resource deficits: not enough money, land, or partnerships. But the real issue is the absence of systems that turn resources into returns.

Mindset is systemic. It’s reflected in how ministries track performance. It shows up in whether projects are assessed quarterly. It appears in whether officials get promoted for delivery or demoted quietly for missteps.

Kenya and much of Africa must stop performing for donors. The next summit, the next televised launch, the next pledge means nothing without implementation. What’s needed is:

Institutional memory: so that reforms don’t disappear with each new administration.
Follow-through: with citizen feedback and policy iteration.
Professional bureaucracy: where public service becomes a calling, not a career pitstop.

A Tale of Two Expressways

Kenya’s Nairobi Expressway is an infrastructural marvel. But beneath its flyovers, millions in Mukuru and Mathare live without running water or power. The expressway leads to Mombasa, a port city without an aligned export strategy. This is symptomatic of planning driven by optics rather than integrated industrial logic.

In contrast, Vietnam’s highways feed industrial clusters, not just ports. Their development is synchronized with manufacturing zones, vocational training hubs, and inland logistics parks.

Infrastructure without an industrial base is just a road. Vietnam builds ecosystems. Kenya builds monuments.

The Global Clock Is Ticking

Africa still has a window but it’s closing fast. Asia is not waiting. Latin America is rebooting. And the United Arab Emirates is fast becoming a regional HQ for African trade flows.

To re-enter the race, Kenya must address its execution deficit with surgical precision. This begins with de-centering the politician and empowering the technocrat.

As Chau concluded: “It’s time to turn off the microphone and turn on the power.”

A Closing Reflection

In many ways, Kenya is a microcosm of the continent’s wider challenge. Talent abounds. Vision isn’t lacking. What’s missing is the muscle memory of execution—of finishing what’s been started, evaluating what’s been done, and building not just for this quarter, but for the next generation.

With reliable power, consistent policy, disciplined delivery, and the courage to move from rhetoric to results, Kenya could lead Africa into its industrial century.

But first, the country must learn to build like Asia—and not just dream about it.