Dependence on Primary Commodities and Poverty Traps in Sub-Saharan Africa: Devising strategies and building capabilities for diversification

This paper analyses the poverty traps problem of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries and their dependence on a few primary export commodities in their trade relationships with the rest of the world. We argue that traditional approaches to development and industrialization have failed to take account of the necessity of building appropriate technological capability for SSA countries to acquire, master and effectively apply modern technologies. Taking lessons from the failure of these traditional approaches, w e place the national systems of innovation (NSI) approach and the adequate technological capability building (TCB) at the source of economic diversification needed to reduce dependence on primary commodities and disentangle poverty traps in SSA countries.