RD: As we saw, I think, in Ghana. The Ghanaian election was fantastic because you could see that there were areas that had voted one way and they'd had a period of terrific growth, apparently, but they said, "No, we've had enough of that." And they voted in the opposition - amazing.

DM: Absolutely, but Ghana is a very good example of a country that is really struggling and I hope that they continue down the path to wean themselves off aid. I know, from somebody who will remain nameless, but who is very senior in the Ghanaian government, that when they decided they were going to go to the capital markets to issue a bond and raise money through international investors, the multinational institutions were vehemently against it. They said: "Why are you doing this? It's cheaper for you to borrow from us. This is ridiculous. You're going to have problems." The Ghanaians said: "Absolutely not. Longer term, it's better for us to have much more transparency since national markets are going to bring in more forms of direct investment if people internationally know more about Ghana." And what did they do? They went straight to the capital markets and issued a $750 million dollar bond.

RD: It was over-subscribed.

DM: Absolutely, by multiples and that's a fantastic story. Is it perfect? No. Are they going to have challenges? Of course they are. But what an amazing thing for them to actually stand up and say, "You know, we understand that you've got this other model but we don't think it's worked. We're going to follow South Africa and Botswana. They don't rely on aid and guess what? For some reason they have lower poverty levels and they've got more economic growth, so maybe their model's much better than what we've been doing."

RD: The second half of your book, where you explain how African development could be funded, was clearly written before the great credit crash. Am I right? Until recently Africa was ignored by the markets. It was just too dangerous. But then investors were looking for more and more adventurous places, so suddenly they got into Africa and did very nicely. But that money has dried up now, hasn't it?