The statement “too many cooks spoil the broth” can be interpreted as meaning, “when too many people are involved in a task or activity, it will not be done well”.
To prove this point, some philosophers have claimed that putting too many highly intelligent people on the same task or project can lead to confusion, inefficiency, and a stunted outcome. Whether that statement hold all the time or sometimes? I definitely cannot say😊
However, there are some practical situations I have experienced that help me understand the true meaning of that statement. One is over-concentration/overcrowding. When there are too many people in a confined physical place at the same time, things become a little bit challenging, economics shows us they struggle for scarce resources and survival becomes a little bit heightened.
Another observable scenario is the over-appearance of middlemen.
You see middlemen play a pivotal role in facilitating any endeavor they delve into. They appear as links, bridges, errand boys, credit facilitators, and also as regulators. Irrespective of the numerous positive benefits they offer, they have one significant downside to them that poses a herculean challenge. It has long been postulated that middlemen are agents/drivers of inflation. Every stop at the gate of a middleman yields are marginal increase in fee.
One peculiar middleman in Africa is the regulators
Two visible notations that align with our lead statement and relate to our immediate societies in Africa are the over-appearance of middlemen and the practice of excessive bureaucratic practices. For today we leave the latter and focus on the former.
Middlemen increase the length of a value chain and add to the margin fee along the chain. For example in agriculture, before food produce will finally dock at the doorstep of consumers it has to go through so many middlemen and the marginal cost which keeps increasing along the chain finally gets to rest in the pockets of the final consumers.
Starting from the touts in the village farmlands to the local govt duty collectors, state govt duty collectors, transport body regulators, trade and market regulators as well as law enforcement agencies. They all keep adding a marginal fee to the markup price of the food items anytime it crosses their terrain. And I ask, are all these guys really necessary in overseeing farm produce transportation to the final consumers?
Another case study observed recently is with the logistics industry especially as it concerns last-mile delivery operators. For a last mile courier company in Lagos, they have to battle with regulatory bodies such as NIPOST, FRSC, VIO, local govt officials, state govt officials, and also touts(agberos) that claim to sell tickets and control specific routes. When the delivery bikes finally get to maneuver all these hurdles, for them to break even, they pass the inflated charges to the final consumer(sighs).
Kindly take note, that these are just a few notations. The practice still exists in so many other sectors.
In summary, we can say that regulators are there to ensure the sound, efficient, and proper running operations of different sectors. They are middlemen, the standards they set and the benefits they offer are very vital to the smooth running of operations. However, on the flip side, just as too many cooks spoil the broth, the over-appearance of middlemen(regulators) is catastrophic and poses a significant blockade to seamless operations and stalls progressive developmental efforts in our region.
Deez Graphics Daily 