Dr. Eric Oduro Wiafe

The Role of Religion in Poverty Alleviation in Africa Dr. Eric Oduro Wiafe

Is Africa a poor continent, a continent without hope? The answer is straightforward and definitely NO. Africa is not poor. The people are also not poor but they have been made poor by a multiplicity of factors. Africa as a continent is potentially endowed with rich natural and human resources. The question now is how the continent is working out of poverty so that the people experience, at least, some concrete glimpses of riches in their daily lives? Also, it is a truism that Africans are religious and today the major religions in Africa are impacting on the lives of the people in a significant way from cradle to grave. On the one hand religion can be said to be helping in ameliorating poverty and on the other hand, it is used as an instrument of deepening the poverty status of the people. This places religion at the centre of both Africa?s development and poverty. The writer therefore touches on the understanding of the three major religions in Africa of poverty and how the religious groups are trying to deal with this phenomenon of poverty. It is the hope that many people will gain from this work and contribute their quota to Africa's Renaissance.