Africa seems to be the only continent in the world that every other country in the world makes plans for. Now, what do we mean by this? Every year we hear about the US-Africa summit, the Russia-Africa summit, the China-Africa summit, the European Union-Africa summit, and so on. It’s never a Nigeria-North American summit or South Africa-Asia summit. It’s as if Africa is not capable of making plans for itself so it’s up to the good old countries of the West to make plans for Africa without the consent of Africa. Now, supposing these plans have led to substantial progress in the African continent then there wouldn’t be any problem but that has not been the case. Instead, it has only led to the plunging of African resources and leaving the continent worse off than before those plans. It makes one wonder why African leaders keep on accepting these deals. We say deals because those plans usually involve African countries agreeing to do what the foreign country wants and in exchange, they would provide developmental assistance. The current state of development in African countries should tell you that those developmental assistance never worked out.

We are currently in 2024, and like all the previous years, countries have started making plans concerning Africa, and the first country to unveil its plan for Africa is Italy. Did Italy consult Africa that it’s making some grand plans for it? The answer is No which shouldn’t be surprising because Western countries have always had this paternalistic attitude towards Africa. So, what is Italy’s plan for Africa? Let’s find out.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whom everybody knows for her strong stance against illegal migration, is the architect of this grand plan which has been in the works since her far-right government took office in October 2022. Details of this plan has so far been sketchy but finally, Meloni decided to unveil this plan at a one-day summit held in Italy on Monday 29th, 2023. About two dozen African leaders including Tunisian President Kais Saied, Senegalese President Macky Sall as well as the presidents of Congo-Brazzaville, Eritrea, Kenya, Mauritania, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe were present at the summit. Top European Union representatives including the President of the Union, president Ursula von der Leyen as well as United Nations officials and representatives from international lending institutions were also present in Rome for the summit. Italy currently holds the presidency of the G7 nations and they have vowed to make African development a central theme, in order to increase their influence in the continent. So it does make sense that they would start the year with a summit detailing their plan for Africa.

Now, the basis of this grand development plan for Africa is to curb illegal migration. Recall that since the 2015 migration crisis experienced in Europe, European countries including Italy have been looking for ways to reduce the number of illegal African migrants. If you watch our video on how Europe has been paying money to stop African migration, you will discover that some of the ways Europe has had to reduce the number of African migrants are inhumane and have resulted in the death of countless migrants. As we said earlier Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been quite vocal about Africa’s illegal migration. In fact, she and her main coalition partner Matteo Salvini of the far-right League, have vowed to stop migrant boats arriving in Europe from North Africa, and this plan known as the Mattei plan is part of the plan to curb illegal migration.

According to the Prime Minister, the best way to solve illegal migration from Africa is to ensure Africa’s development. The reasoning is that if African countries are developed as most European countries are then young Africans would not need to migrate to Europe which is very true. The Prime Minister got this idea from Enrico Mattei, an Italian public administrator who, in the 1950s, advocated for Italy to support North African governments to grow their economies and develop their natural resources. On the surface, this looks good for Africa, if the plan is eventually put in place. But will it? As we said on the surface the plan seems like a good deal for Africa but looking at it in detail, it can be observed that Italy stands to gain more from the plan.

Now, during the summit, Meloni said those represented that Europe’s and Africa’s “destinies” were interconnected and that she was determined to pursue cooperation “as equals – far from any predatory temptation, but also from that charitable approach to Africa that is ill-suited to its extraordinary potential for development”. She went further to state that the Italian development plan for Africa is based on five main policy pillars which are education and training, agriculture, health, water, and energy. We can understand the first four pillars but why energy? We will come to that later. The Prime Minister then went on to list an array of small pilot projects in the various segments, including a centre for training on renewable energy in Morocco, redevelopment of Tunisian schools, improving primary care for mothers and children in the Ivory Coast, supporting farmers in northern Egypt, developing the biofuels sector in Kenya, an agriculture monitoring project in Algeria, and work on water networks in the Congo Republic. This may seem like a great plan but why does Italy want to develop energy in Africa?

Recall that following the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022, Europe which had been dependent on Russian gas, stopped purchasing gas from Russia as part of the sanctions. This means there is currently a huge demand for energy and gas in Europe and Italy wants to supply that demand. So, they came up with this so-called Mattei plan. In her opening speech, Prime Minister Meloni stated that Italy wants to free up African energy to guarantee younger generations a right, which to date has been denied” as if Italy is truly concerned about African Youth. To sweeten the deal, Meloni stated that those pilot projects would ensure that Africa becomes a major exporter of energy to Africa.
Truthfully all these are just talks, the main goal of the Mattei plan is to make Italy an energy hub to transport natural gas supplies from Africa to the rest of Europe, with Italian energy major company Eni set to play a key role in the initiative. So, basically, the plan is for Africa to export energy through Italy to Europe, and in exchange, Italy would make some developmental investments which would also help to curb illegal African migrants. In essence, Italy is killing two birds with one stone.

Now, according to Meloni, the plan would initially be funded by Italy to the tune of $5.9 billion-plus an additional 3 billion euros from a climate fund set up in 2021 to promote international environmental projects. During the summit, she added that Italy was also looking to involve international financial institutions, the European Union, and other nations in the financing of the plan. However, one thing you should know is that some of the funds would be in the form of loans which means more debt for African countries that are already struggling under debt. This certainly doesn’t look like a good deal for Africa. Interestingly while the submit was going on, Italian green and opposition lawmakers planned a counter-conference at Italy’s lower chamber of parliament to criticize the Mattei Plan as a neocolonial “empty box” that seeks to again exploit Africa’s natural resources, which is very true. Just like all the other summits that have been held between Africa and other foreign governments which has resulted in failed promises on the part of the foreign governments, this Italian summit would be no different.

The Mattei plan is more for the benefit of Italy than Africa. It’s not so surprising because when Italy was making the plan, Africa was not aware. This was confirmed by the chairman of the African Union, Moussa Faki Mahama who said that African countries would have liked to have been consulted beforehand and didn’t want more empty pledges. In his own words ““We need to pass from words to deeds. You can understand that we cannot be happy with promises that often are not maintained.” Cristiano Maugeri of Action Aid Italia also confirmed this by lamenting that had excluded any consultation with civil society groups active in African development to formulate the plan and said that it regardless represented something of a repackaging of existing projects. This means that there is nothing new about what Italy wants to do in Africa. They are simply making the same promises made by other Western countries whenever they want something from Africa.

Although Italy’s Prime Minister said that the Mattei Plan will be based on “a new approach: not predatory, not paternalistic, but not charitable either,” and that it will start a new page in the relationships between Europe and the African countries, with economic and strategic partnerships among “equals, we can’t help but think that there is nothing different about it and that their approach would be the same as it has always been. Hopefully, African leaders would not rush into accepting this deal from Italy without making sure that Africa doesn’t get wounded in the process.

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