Africa’s impressive average economic growth of around 5 per cent over the 14 years to 2014 saw economists toasting to the continent’s development potential.

Industrialisation has been a campaign promise across the continent, with its acknowledged ability to bring prosperity, new jobs and better incomes for all. Yet, the continent is less industrialised today than it was four decades ago.

Japan’s interventions in Africa have mostly been under the radar, attracting little fanfare. Yet, it was the continent’s largest Asian economic partner until 2000, when China took the lead. In 1993, Japan pioneered Asian countries’ efforts to engage directly with African leaders by launching the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), with the United Nations Development Program and the UN’s Office of the Special Advisor on Africa.

Only weeks after Liberia was declared Ebola free, two more deaths were confirmed in the same village in the country, disrupting the celebratory mood that had followed the May 9 announcement.