How MrBeast is Keeping Africa Poor
Good intentions, (very) bad outcomes...
The internet has crowned a new savior for Africa: Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast. His massive YouTube empire has expanded into Africa with mega-projects that generate billions of views and floods of digital praise.
Let me be clear about something first: I believe his heart is in the right place.
Jimmy seems sincere. However, good intentions don't automatically create good outcomes.
“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” - Milton Friedman
Since 2023, MrBeast has constructed over 100 wells across Cameroon, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, claiming to provide clean water to nearly half a million people. He distributed medical supplies, launched AI-powered Strep A testing initiatives to provide accessible and affordable diagnostic solutions to underserved regions, and started a free breakfast program targeting 1.5 million children working on cocoa farms in West Africa.
These intiatives all follow the same formula: identify a problem, implement a Western solution, capture tearful gratitude of locals, upload, watch views explode. The world cheers. Donations pour in. Repeat.
But here's what everyone misses:
This model of philanthropy, however well-intentioned, is fundamentally flawed. Even worse, it's dangerous to Africa's future.
The “MrBeast” approach is everything but new. It's the same broken playbook Western aid organizations have used for decades, just repackaged for the social media age.
Take TOMS Shoes. Blake Mycoskie built an empire on the promise: “Buy one, give one.” For every pair you bought, he gave one to a child in Africa. It felt good. It sold well. But it failed.
I’ve spoken to many entrepreneurs in Meckhé, Senegal who make shoes for a living. They had to cut staff (meaning hundreds of people lost their jobs!), and some of them had to shut down entirely. Why? Because no one can compete with free.
Giving away shoes might come from a good heart. But if you care about the poor, you need more than a heart. You also need a mind. A mind that understands how the world works, incentives, and dignity.
(Watch this documentary we made a few years ago that actually shows how TOMS Shoes put people in Meckhé out of business, and also which solution I’m working on to create prosperity there.)
As someone who has built manufacturing businesses in Senegal and fought against suffocating regulations across Africa, I've seen firsthand how this "helping hand" often becomes a barrier to real prosperity.
Since 1961, USAID has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on projects in Africa: building schools, clinics, wells, and roads. The result? Well, Africa is still the poorest region of the world TODAY.
Before trying to fix Africa’s problems, MrBeast could’ve just thought from first principles by asking himself:
“Why is child labor happening in the first place?”
He said that after handing out free breakfast, one school’s attendance went up by 10% in a week. But does that mean kids left the cocoa farms? Or are they just showing up for the food?
If MrBeast really cares about this problem, the real metric to be measured here isn’t attendance, but whether child labor is actually decreasing.
This is what happens when we treat poverty like a YouTube algorithm, something you can figure out with 2,000 hours of research and advice from “the greatest minds.” Most of the people considered “experts” in this space have spent decades promoting the same top-down, charity-based solutions that haven’t worked (and in many cases, created a culture of dependency that traps Africa into poverty).
Some reports have already emerged that some of MrBeast's wells are failing due to maintenance issues. This mirrors precisely what development experts have observed for decades: infrastructure projects without robust local maintenance systems eventually collapse.
Each well requires approximately $1 per person per year for proper upkeep. Who pays these costs once the cameras leave? Who repairs the pumps when they inevitably malfunction? Who manages water resources to prevent contamination?
Handpumps deployed by NGOs in Africa often last less than five years. By the mid-2000s, 36% of about 350,000 installed pumps were non-functional, and this number increased to 300,000 abandoned pumps by recent counts. This has led to a $5 billion wasted investment due to the "build, break, and rebuild" approach.
When MrBeast or foreign NGOs step in to provide services that could be delivered by local entrepreneurs and businesses, they unintentionally distort the incentive structure of a healthy market economy.
Why build a business solving real problems when foreign actors offer those solutions for free? Why invest in infrastructure when someone else is giving it away?
And worse, why should governments bother creating a business-friendly environments when these saviors are already trying to meet people’s basic needs? It gives them every reason to sit back, stay inefficient, and let outsiders do the heavy lifting.
It creates dependency and crowds out local initiative, which obviously weakens self-reliance instead of encouraging it.
"Show me the incentive, and I'll show you the outcome." - Charlie Munger
And most damaging of all is the narrative these interventions reinforce. MrBeast's videos, with hundreds of millions of views, portray Africans primarily as passive recipients of foreign generosity rather than capable agents of our own destiny.
I will never forget the day a young woman working in my manufacturing facility in Senegal confessed something that broke my heart. She told me she had come to believe Black Africans must be inferior because of how consistently we're portrayed as helpless and dependent.
Only after participating in creating great products that meet international quality standards and are sold at Whole Foods Market did she recognize this lie for what it was.
This psychological damage is the invisible cost of viral philanthropy that no one talks about.
What They NEVER Tell You
While MrBeast drills wells for viral content, the actual barriers to African prosperity remain largely unaddressed.
Let me share what I face daily as an entrepreneur trying to create sustainable businesses in Senegal.
When I launched my skin care manufacturing company in Senegal, I needed proper packaging. But the problem was that local manufacturers required minimum orders of 1,000 boxes of each size when I only needed 50 to start. With two box sizes needed, that meant ordering 2,000 boxes total, paying 50% upfront, waiting 4-8 weeks after sample approval, and finding ways to store excess inventory that would deteriorate in our climate.
And guess what?
When I considered importing boxes instead, I had to pay a 45% tariff just to get started.
No, that's not a typo. I had to pay nearly half the cost just in government fees to import those materials that I needed to improve my product.
Meanwhile, for the part of my business that operates in the United States, I go online and get any supplies I want for my products almost instantly via Amazon, Home Depot, specialized suppliers such as Uline, or one of a thousand others, with no special permissions of any kind required.
This isn't unique to Senegal. According to the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business rankings (before they were discontinued), 13 of the 20 worst-ranked countries globally for starting a business were in Africa. That’s 70% of the bottom performers.
In Singapore, which was only twice as wealthy as Senegal in 1960 but is now ~52 times richer, starting a business requires one procedure, half a day, and costs virtually nothing.
Then you have the labor laws…
African labor laws often create exactly the opposite effect of what they intend. With mandatory lengthy notice periods, substantial severance packages, and near-impossible dismissal processes, formal employment becomes too risky for most businesses.
The result? ~90% of employment in many African countries exists in the informal sector, where workers have:
No legal protections
No benefits
No job security
Typically much lower wages
When hiring for my manufacturing facility, I was constantly warned by lawyers about the risks (and I was lucky enough to afford lawyers). Each formal employee represented a potential financial liability rather than a productive partner. Not because of their abilities, but because of counterproductive regulations that make it nearly impossible for entrepreneurs to operate effectively.
This is why unemployment remains catastrophically high across the continent, especially among educated youth. In some African countries, nearly 50% of university graduates cannot find formal employment.
The Mauritius Miracle
Mauritius, a small island nation off Africa's east coast, ranks among the global top tier for ease of doing business. Its GDP per capita now approaches European levels. Its citizens enjoy far higher living standards than most of the continent.
What made Mauritius successful? It wasn't foreign charity. And it definitely wasn't viral philanthropy.
It was creating an environment where businesses could thrive.
By implementing market-friendly reforms, establishing reliable legal systems, and creating conditions where entrepreneurship can flourish, Mauritius transformed from a sugar-dependent colony into a diversified upper-middle-income economy.
The lesson is obvious to anyone willing to see it: economic freedom, not foreign aid, is the path to prosperity.
What Would Actually Help Africa?
If MrBeast genuinely wants to help Africa, he could redirect his enormous resources and influence toward enabling African solutions rather than importing Western ones.
Because we think Jimmy really wants to do good, we even reached out to his team. We told them, “What if instead of one-off giveaways, we build cities in Africa where it’s actually easy to do business? Places where people can start companies, create jobs, earn a living, and build real wealth?”
We explained how they could even launch African-made chocolate bars, energy drinks, or whatever they would want to build. Those products could all be sourced in Africa, made by Africans, and sold to the world.
This wouldn’t just create jobs for millions. It would eventually restore Africa’s dignity.
Because when people work and create value, they gain pride. They don’t feel like passive recipients. They feel like equals. And when Africa gains dignity, the world’s perception of black people will change too, because over 80% of the world’s black population lives in Africa.
So in a very real sense, helping Africa rise through business and production would not only fight poverty, it would help fight racism.
Unfortunately, his team’s response was, “Oh, we already have our Africa project.”
Naturally, we were curious. What was it? Something bold? Transformational?
Turns out… it’s digging wells. Again.
The same thing that’s been tried for decades and never actually moves the needle…
Instead of just repeating the same mistakes over and over again, this is how to really help Africa:
Use resources to support African organizations working to reduce bureaucratic barriers, corruption, and regulatory obstacles. Partner with local think tanks, business associations, and reform-minded officials who understand the specific challenges in their communities.
Treat Africans as legitimate business partners, not charity cases.
Several investment funds already focus on African startups because they see the continent's enormous untapped potential. MrBeast's platform could spotlight these efforts rather than perpetuating the charity model.
Many of Africa's social challenges can be addressed through market mechanisms more effectively than through charity. Clean water, healthcare, education, and other basic needs can be provided through innovative business models that deliver affordability, quality, and sustainability. Envirofit, for example, have been working in Kenya and Ghana. They created SmartGas, which is a clean cooking system that uses LPG (liquid petroleum gas) instead of wood or charcoal. It works with a pay-as-you-cook plan. Their smart meter connects to an LPG tank and lets families pay small amounts when they can afford it, similar to adding credit to a phone. This gives families cleaner air and better health while letting them choose when to cook, without needing donations
Perhaps most promising of all is the concept of Próspera Cities which are special economic zones with world-class legal systems designed specifically for entrepreneurs. These zones can provide islands of excellence where African businesses can thrive, free from the regulatory burdens that plague much of the continent (here’s how they work in practice).
Dignity > Dependency
I don't want another generation of African children growing up believing they are inferior because all they see are images of themselves as helpless recipients of foreign generosity.
I don't want another generation of Western children growing up believing Africans are incapable of solving our own problems.
I want a future where Africans are recognized globally as co-creators of innovation and prosperity.
The young woman in my manufacturing facility who discovered her own capability, who realized she isn't inferior after all, didn't find that transformation through charity. She found it through participating in creating something valuable, seeing her work appreciated in the marketplace, earning her success rather than receiving it as a gift.
That is the dignity all humans deserve.
And it's precisely what's missing from MrBeast's model of philanthropy.
I really wish mr beast could see this article. Perhaps then he would be able to incorporate your ideas instead and also share your viewpoints with his foloower
Jimmy Donaldson better known as Mr. Beast means well, his heart is in the right place, and it is clear he genuinely cares about the children of Africa. But nonetheless, his project is going to fail miserably and end in disaster and those praising him clearly haven’t thought about what he’s doing a day in their lives. All they see is what looks like a kind act. But a kind act is totally worthless if it can’t actually solve the problem.
Mr. Beast is on the road to being a modern day, Don Quixote. His work will all come to nothing and isn’t worth a hill of beans at the end of the day. It’s because once again some western do-gooder however well-intentioned, comes in and thinks they know what’s best for Africans. That doesn’t and never will work. Mr. Beast will eventually come to admit this one day.
Mr. Beasts efforts amount giving a bunch of random kids some free food and building some defective pumps that don’t work. Wow! How generous of you! You’re such a hero, Mr. Beast! But without African maintenance workers to keep those wells and pumps running they’ll break down. Some already have as a matter of fact. The rest of what he did was charity. Well, the western-based philanthropic model has done nothing but keep Africa poor.
The claim that one school’s attendance is already up 10% is likely a lie for PR purposes. Those kids probably ate the food than went right back to the coco fields. Mr. Beast and the “geniuses” who advise him are total clowns who have embarrassed themselves. He has surrounded himself with a bunch of yes men who all tell him what he wants to hear and promote the same solutions that have been done for decades that don’t work.
Also, who’s gonna pay for the cost of those above-mentioned pumps or manage the water resources? Not Jimmy, he’ll be too busy off playing Superman and saving the world. Foreign NGOs have made the same mistake countless times. The pumps they install break and that’s the end of that. The better solution would be to let African entrepreneurs and businesses create the solutions to these problems. Businesses have no hope of solving these problems if foreign actors offer them however ineffective, for free.
African governments can also just sit back and chill out and let NGOs do all the work while they sit on their hands, take bribes and kickbacks and get rich. Meanwhile, nothing really changes, and ordinary Africans suffer greatly while foreigners and NGOs are left searching their heads as to what went wrong. What Mr. Beast is doing with his charity efforts is also unintentionally racist. This is
because it portrays Africans as passive bystanders who can’t do anything without the help of white westerner’s charity. Magette’s story about that young girl in Senegal who said she had come to the conclusion black Africans were inferior because of how often she’d seen them portrayed as helpless and dependent. But after creating great products with her own two hands, she came to see that this is nothing more than a sinister lie.
Oh yes, I’d also point out that western charity puts African companies out of business. Let’s take for instance TOMS Shoes started by Blake Mycoskie who only managed to enrich himself while keeping Africans dependent while also putting Senegalese shoe manufacturers out of business. That’s right, Africans lost their jobs and livelihoods! If they didn’t close down altogether, they had no choice but to cut staff.
You need a heart AND a head if you’re going to help the poor! All that aid from USAID (which is just a covert front for the CIA anyway) didn’t lift African nations out of poverty now did it? Let’s explore some better ideas. First off, economic freedom! African countries need to cut taxes, roll back regulations, ditch tariffs and adopt free trade, and reform their labor laws. The proof is in the pudding. Economic freedom took Mauritius from a low-income country to a middle-income country. Mr. Beast and others like need to redirect their resources to finding African solutions to African problems instead of playing the great white savior. How about building cities in Africa without all these economic barriers? Start businesses that can sell products sourced in Africa and made by Africans. When people are actively working and help create things they gain pride and self-esteem.
But their response shows how deluded, out of touch and close minded they are. They essentially said “Yeah, don’t care, our way is the only way. We know what’s best for you. Shut up Africans and let us westerners do your thinking for you!” Let’s not do that. If you want to help Africa dear readers learn from Mr. Beast what not to do. I would propose instead doing what Magette suggested. Back African organizations fighting to make governmental and economic reforms, treating Africans as legitimate business partners, spotlight African investment funds, support and promote free-market solutions to Africa’s problems, help fund the building of Prospera Cities. Dignity for Africans is what we need to be fostering NOT dependency!