Foreign aids as Africa’s pandora box – Part 2

The success of global poverty reduction is dominated by Asia, where high-impact structural reforms were used to develop a self-sustaining economy and break from the shackles of Western hegemony. In 1990, a large majority – 60.2 of people in the oriental territory lived in extreme poverty while Africa during the same period had only 14 per cent of its people in the poverty line. The last 30 years have seen the Asian region achieve significant reduction with only about 3.5per cent living in poverty. On the contrary, extreme poverty has become a cathedral in Africa as over 57 per cent of the world’s poorest are domiciled in her Sub-Saharan region.

It has become abundantly clear that as long as the conditions for economic growth in developing countries are absent, no amount of external financing will be able to produce economic growth. Africa’s labour and natural resource endowments are insufficient to attract and sustain financial capital. Critical endowments like human, public and institutional capital are pertinent.

The call for further increase in the volume of aid to Africa known as the “Big Push” redolent the familiar “white man’s burden” to uplift the peoples of the “dark continent” from gloom, ignorance, and despondency. Those who champion the moral argument, when pushed, will generally admit that their calls for more intervention are self-serving and not purely benevolence. The irrefutable fact remains that during a period when aid has risen over time as a percent of income in Africa, Africa’s growth rate has concurrently fallen, giving rise to increased poverty and a decline in the continent’s share of global trade.

Even in this epoch that has been dubbed the African Century, playing out in our eyes is a grotesque of Africa as a helpless child and a continent of beggars. The United Nations and World Bank who are both linchpins in plotting the fate of Africa cannot oppose the fact that as the region receiving the most aid, Africa will not meet their development benchmarks of 2030.

Governments of nations are devising means to double their per capita income. To do this in one generation, which means about 25 years, a country needs to grow at 3 per cent yearly. Lower-income countries need to grow at a faster pace to anticipate this, approximately 7 per cent a year. Most developing countries are growing below 3 per cent annually.

Development is the internal pursuit of human society. Africa’s concern should be all about building sustainable opportunities that will enhance the productivity of physical and financial capital. Because as long as significant gaps in infrastructure, technology, and skills persist, African society cannot ingress meaningful development.

To truly reimagine and deepen antipathy towards these external spoilers, Africa must be able to conduct her development policy within the framework of a planned and dirigisme economy. Beyond earnestly pursuing a viable fiscal and monetary policy that is detoxified of external financing, investment in human capital development and evolving educational system must be prioritised. We can learn some lessons from the economic boom of the Asian tiger which is profoundly sustained by the presence of a highly-skilled workforce.

It is perilous for a new Africa not to emerge. Coupled with being the fastest-growing population in the world, the density of humanitarian crises nestling across the region is nightmarish. African leaders therefore must liberate themselves from the coven of external aid as no society has ever been powered to prosperity with foreign endowment.

In the face of these many uncertainties hovering over this land of opulence, the propensity to become the most dynamic region that will optimally drive global growth is patent. All that this ideal is craving for is a shared vision of a united Africa; an Africa with a robust economic network that will engender a competitive pan-African marketplace. One new factory anywhere in Africa has more value than a hundred million dollars of aid.

What would be far more beneficial to African development is to remove barriers to labour and capital mobility and allow African businesses to compete as it is envisioned in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. Dubbed to be the largest regional trading bloc in the world, the lofty pact will not only facilitate our revival as competitive market economies but also thwart the ongoing contestation for access to our treasure trove of commodities and raw materials.

Since sustainable economic growth is premised on stability, we need to develop the capacity against asymmetric warfare threats and cross-border insurgency without having to rely on global players with their vested interests. Rather than waiting for outside agencies to help us bury our dead, we need a proper African-managed disease response centre.

In this spectrum of reality, African citizens must acknowledge the potency of their collective agency. It is their responsibility to demand accountability from governments, to champion policies that uplift the marginalised, and to forge a path toward a future where justice, compassion, and opportunity are not lofty ideals but tangible realities for all.

Concluded.
Akinfenwa is of the Lagos State Office of Sustainable Development Goals, Alausa, Ikeja.