One must have a heart of stone and a head of mush not to welcome the economic renaissance of Africa and its businesses, which a Financial Times series is mapping this week. Still, counting a once forgotten continent’s new-found blessings should not blur a critical look at the challenges that remain.

Many of the world’s fastest-growing countries since 2000 – albeit from a very low base – have been African. The continent’s forecast growth rate exceeds Asia’s. Helping to power this progress is a homegrown business sector.

Part of the success reflects the removal of the extreme policy mistakes of socialist state planning in the 1960s and 1970s and excessive liberalisation and state downsizing in the 1980s. Today, African political leadership is better than it was in many places, if mixed overall. Most leaders now seem willing to let markets do what they do best.