THE OIL CURSE:

Poverty and income inequality have remained high in the largest and oldest petroleum producers on the continent. 2008-09 household survey in Angola revealed income distribution among the most unequal in sub-Saharan Africa, with the top 10 percent of earners accounting for one third of total income and a poverty rate of 58 percent in rural areas. In the case of Nigeria, while income per capita has more than quadrupled since 1990, the proportion of people living in acute poverty has stayed stable at more than 60 percent.

Politically, most established African oil states are characterized by weak or absent democracy and either long-standing leaders (Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Algeria, and Chad) or violent internal conflict (Nigeria, South Sudan, and Libya).

2015 will present additional challenges to these and others African states hoping to begin extracting hydrocarbons in the near future. In early January 2014, crude oil averaged more than $100 a barrel; a year later it has fallen to $50. 

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