Tuesday 22 July 2014

Is Africa Short Selling?



VENTURES AFRICA – Lots of research published recently seem to point too the same thing: Africa may not be getting sufficient bang for the buck it gives the world!
foreign-investorsA union of African and UK partners released a research indicating that Africa may be losing as much as six and a half times the amount of money it receives in aid. Another report reveals that the continent receives about $30 billion in aid per year but loses some $192 billion every year to to illicit financial flows, debt repayments, costs associated with climate change, repatriation of multinational company profits and the loss of skilled workers. When all financial inflows are considered holistically, Africa runs at a net loss of $58 billion every year.
With the figures above, the following question is begged: does the world aid Africa or does Africa aid the world?

What, really, is the true financial relationship between Africa and the wealthy countries that invest in Africa? If lots of investments, for instance, have gone into ending poverty on the continent and the poverty rate is still significant, is it wrong to think that those investments are mis‐directed? Could it be that the investors may have played a role in causing the conditions that their aid is supposed to remedy?
Resource rich countries, very ironically, have significant levels of poverty. It is even estimated that one‐third of the world’s poorest one billion people live in resource rich countries.
Recently, Mr John Ashe, President of the UN General Assembly, remarked that much of the investments in Africa over the past decade have not led to the enhancement of productive capacity and the much needed job creation but has been targeted towards resource extraction and exports.
What Africa needs is strategic and targeted action, not necessarily aid!

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