For the past few months, I’ve been thinking about economics a lot — not just in the theoretical sense, but in the way it shapes how people perceive and participate in the world around them. I’ve been reading ‘The Econocracy‘, but between you and I, I am struggling to make progress in the midst of my MBA, and running my businesses.
What’s become increasingly clear is this: too many people are economically illiterate — not because they lack intelligence, but because they were never taught. This isn’t an individual failing. It’s systemic.
The Hidden Cost of What We Don’t Teach
By Nthanda Manduwi – Economist, Policy Analyst, and Development Advocate
I’ve spent years working across public sector policy, entrepreneurship, and youth skills development, and one reality keeps slapping me in the face: the gaps in foundational knowledge are wider than we like to admit. Basic economics, personal finance, and digital literacy — things that should form the bedrock of modern education — are instead treated as specialist skills, reserved for experts.
The result? We graduate students and even professionals into a world they are fundamentally unequipped to navigate. They don’t understand how their economies work, why their countries are drowning in debt, or what inflation means for their purchasing power. They don’t understand how to structure a PowerPoint presentation, how to write a professional email, or how to manage a basic project timeline in Outlook.
These aren’t “special skills.” These are survival skills.
A System Trained for Obsolescence
The education systems in many African countries — Malawi included — are still largely designed to feed the machinery of public administration. We train for compliance, not creativity. We reward memorization, not innovation. We shape students into ideal civil servants for ministries that no longer function, instead of building entrepreneurs, engineers, product managers, data scientists, and business strategists who can power the industries of tomorrow.
It’s no wonder our economies struggle to diversify. We’re training for a world that no longer exists.
When I’m onboarding a M’mawa Apprentice or a Nyenyezi Fellow, I often have to start at ground zero — teaching basic MSFT 365 tools like Excel, Outlook, and Teams. These tools should be second nature by university — but for many, they are introduced after graduation, in the job market, when the learning curve is steepest and the consequences are highest.
It’s not their fault. It’s the system.
What The Econocracy Got Right — and Why It Matters for Africa
Reading The Econocracy on my recent flight felt personal. The book challenges the idea that economics should be the exclusive domain of “experts.” It argues — rightly — that economic literacy is a democratic necessity, not an elite privilege. When people don’t understand how their economies work, they have no way to hold governments accountable or make informed decisions about their own financial futures.
For Malawi — and much of Africa — this couldn’t be more urgent. Our economies are not broken — they were never fully built. We inherited systems designed for extraction, not development. And now, we find ourselves in a permanent negotiation — with creditors, donors, and development partners — trying to make a broken system serve modern needs.
Without basic economic understanding, we have no chance of rewriting this story.
Rethinking Education for the World We Live In
The gaps in digital literacy, economic literacy, and professional productivity tools aren’t just an education problem. They’re an economic development problem. They are directly tied to why our graduates struggle to compete regionally and globally.
We need a continental rethink — not just in what we teach, but how and when we teach it.
- Economic fundamentals should be introduced at primary level — not as an advanced subject for future economists, but as basic life skills.
- Digital literacy should be embedded across subjects — no student should graduate without knowing how to draft a formal letter, analyze data in Excel, or deliver a coherent presentation.
- Financial literacy should be mandatory — students should understand debt, interest rates, savings, and investment by the time they leave secondary school.
This Is Not Just Business for Me — It’s Mission Work
It would be easy to frame this as a business opportunity — and yes, there is work to be done, and services to be sold. But for me, this is about more than money. It’s about agency.
We cannot build self-reliant economies when the majority of our population lacks the foundational tools to participate meaningfully. We cannot shift from aid dependency to economic sovereignty when our own graduates — our future leaders — can’t fully understand the budgets being tabled before them.
This is not just an educational reform agenda — it is an economic survival strategy. The gaps we’re seeing in economic literacy, digital fluency, and foundational skills are not isolated — they are systemic. And they demand systemic solutions.
Join Us at CIDCON Africa 2025
In 2024, my team at the Kwathu Kollective and I created CIDCON Africa — to bring together educators, innovators, policymakers, and the private sector to co-create new learning pathways that respond to the realities of today’s economy and tomorrow’s opportunities.
If you’re passionate about reimagining education, rethinking innovation ecosystems, and ensuring that Africa’s next generation is equipped not just to survive but to lead — we would love to hear from you.
Whether you’re an edtech founder, policy analyst, curriculum designer, or simply someone who believes education should be a tool for economic freedom, CIDCON Africa is your platform.
Let’s build the future of learning and economic empowerment together.
🔗 Learn more and get involved: kwathu.org
📩 Let’s connect directly: nthanda.com
Still in love with Malawi,
Ntha
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