
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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