One of the best things that can happen to the African continent is for Africans to wake up one morning and hear that no more foreign aid is coming into the continent either because the African government finally decided to stop receiving aid or Western countries decide not to give aid to Africa again. Shocking right? It may seem weird to say that Africa no longer receiving aid is a good thing because aid which means help is supposed to help the African continent develop just like its Western counterparts. But, the fact is since the African continent started receiving foreign aid, the continent has not gotten better. Instead, the state of development is worse off than it just started. The rate of poverty across the continent has increased tremendously with more than half of the population living below the poverty line. The standard of living has reduced and per capita income for most African countries has reduced drastically or stagnant. So, please then what is the need for the Foreign aid in Africa?
For almost half a century the countries of Africa have been awash in aid with hundreds of billions of dollars given to African governments. In fact, according to a 2014 report, the African continent receives about $133.7 billion each year from official aid, grants, loans to the private sector, and remittances. Imagine if this staggering amount of 133.7 billion dollars were actually invested in the continent every year, Africa would certainly not be the way it is now. The Commission on Africa, established by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, sought to raise $50 billion a year on the international capital markets which would be used to reverse Africa’s economy. In July 2005, Blair made aid to Africa the centerpiece of the British presidency during the G‑8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland. Four years earlier in 2001, US President Bush, tripled aid to Africa to 4.3 billion dollars. In addition, his administration planned to boost grants to poor African countries.
Back in 1985, the United Nations held a Special Session on Africa to boost aid to Africa which resulted in the UN launching a $25 billion Special Initiative for Africa in 1996. And between 1960 and 1997, it was reported that more than $500 billion in aid was pumped into Africa. From all these accounts, it would seem that the West truly wants to help Africa but the facts don’t lie. Western aid has been a failure and will continue to be a failure. Western Aid in Africa has led to three things that we will expantiate on which are corruption, dependency on the West and a tool for Western exploitation. Let’s start with corruption.
If Western aid were to stop today, the African masses would not even notice, do you know why? It’s because the aid doesn’t get to them in the first place. Instead, all those billion dollars worth of aid goes into the pockets of African greedy politicians. In Senegal $4 million was spent to increase cattle production in the Bakel region. But in the end only 882 additional cattle ended up being reared. So where did the money go? In South Africa over $2 million donated by the European Union was used to stage an “AIDS awareness” play, Sarafina II. While the funds provided a luxury bus for cast and crew, they did little to educate the public about AIDS. AIDS experts condemned the play as a waste of money because it consumed about 20 percent of South Africa’s entire AIDS budget. At the end of the day, the play was pulled but the funds were never recouped.
The Marxist dictatorship of Ethiopia’s Mengistu Haile Mariam was a major recipient of donor funds, a portion of which was used to forcibly resettle large segments of the population. Donor funds, which were earmarked for famine relief, were instead used to buy trucks for the resettlement scheme. Relief aid was also intentionally kept away from some of the most severely affected areas because it suited Mengistu’s regime to starve its opponents. But Ethiopia is not the exception. The Congo also sold donated food supplies and used the funds to purchase an arms factory from Italy. The more peaceful Mauritius took donated rice, which it insisted be of high quality, and diverted it to tourist hotels. And what about most recently, in Nigeria, where during the Covid 19 pandemic, palliative which was meant to be given to the citizens were hoarded and instead shared by politicians with people who would vote for them.
When there’s a drought in a region of Kenya, corrupt Kenyan politicians would immediately cry out to the international community for help. This call would reach the ears of the United Nations World Food Program which would respond by sending several thousands of tons of corn to Kenya. But instead of the corn going to the citizens of Kenya who need it, a portion of it would go directly into the hands of unscrupulous politicians who then pass it onto their own tribe to boost their next election campaign. Another portion of the corn produce would end up on the black market where the corn is dumped at extremely low prices. Then just a few of them would go to the citizens.
Another instance of corruption caused by aid is in Zimbabwe. Since moving to black-majority rule in 1980 Zimbabwe has regularly received financial aid to promote “land reform.” For 20 years the government used these funds to buy up land, which when “reformed” typically ended up in the hands of the ruling party’s elite. Land that was actually redistributed was turned into communal farms and given to peasants who didn’t have the know-how to run them. Many of the farms were pillaged for any saleable items and then deserted. About one-fourth of the communal farms are so unproductive that they require food aid just to prevent the farmers themselves from starving.
When aid comes into an African country, a major portion of the fund is diverted into the personal accounts of greedy African politicians who either use the funds to sponsor elections or store them in bank accounts outside Africa. The amount of money that leaves the African continent every year is mind boggling. The World Bank estimated that “nearly 40 percent of Africa’s aggregate wealth has fled to foreign bank accounts. In February 2005, Nigeria’s police chief, Inspector General Tafa Balogun, was forced into early retirement after investigators probing money-laundering allegations found $52 million hidden in Balogun’s network of 15 bank accounts. And guess what, this guy had only been on the job for just two years. How did an Inspector General of the Police have $52 million in his account? It’s certainly not from his salary of two years. Nigeria’s Senate is not left out. The Senate is riddled with scams and inflated contracts, with proceeds pocketed by sitting senators.
According to the president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chief Jaiye K. Randle, in 2005, individual Nigerians lodged about $170 billion in foreign banks – far more than Nigeria’s foreign debt of $35 billion at the time. Just five months later in July 2005, the Nigeria Economic and Financial Crimes Commission revealed that a – equivalent to all Western aid to Africa over the past four decades. The annoying thing is even when these funds are recovered, they’re quickly looted again.
Since African governments were always looting the aid fund, some Aid Donors such as the United States decided to channel the funds to Africa through NGOs. But that didn’t solve the problem. People began to see NGOs as a source of wealth and so began the proliferation of NGOs in Africa. In 1960, there were only 10 registered NGOs in Ghana but by 2001, the number had increased to 1300. Imagine how many there are now. And it’s not just in Ghana, it’s the same all over the African continent. And do you know what, the donors of this foreign aid such as the World Bank, the EU, and Western countries are aware that substantial amounts of the aid end up in the pockets of greedy African leaders and NGOs but yet they still continue to give the aid and consider them as partners in development. If they truly wanted Africa to develop wouldn’t they have figured out another way to help the continent? Why do they still keep on pumping aid every year when it’s obvious that the aid is not doing anything? It’s obvious that they are getting something from it and this brings us to our next point.
Aid to Africa is a tool of Western exploitation. Recall that 2014 report where we said that Africa receives about $133.7 billion each year. This amount is big right but listen to this. The report included that $191.9 billion is extracted from the continent in the form of debt repayments, multinational company profits and illicit financial flows. Mind you, this is just for 2014, the figure is reportedly higher in most recent times. Based on this 2014 report, it means Africa suffers a net loss of more than $85 billion every year. Such a net outflow suggests that far from the West aiding Africa, it is Africa that is aiding the West. In the same way that Africa is helping to develop the West, it’s the same way that the West is helping to underdevelop Africa using Aid.
Most of the Aid funds given to Africa by the West come with conditions. Some of these conditions include allowing foreign multinational companies to set up their companies in Africa, giving them access to exploit our resources.
Finally, Aid in Africa creates dependency, and this, Africans, is one of the biggest reasons why Africa should stop receiving foreign aid because it has made Africa dependent on the West. Since the inception of aid in Africa, it has become a major source of government funding. In 2009, foreign aid accounted for between 50% and 92% of overall government spending in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Rwanda, Gambia, and Burundi, to name just a few. Imagine that every year, a budget is created in African countries, foreign aid is included as a source of revenue. Can you see why it’s easy for the West to manipulate these countries to do their bidding? Because if they don’t, the West can easily say we are stopping aid from being sent to your country unless you do what we say. It’s what happened to Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali after the coup took place. This means aid has become a weapon just like sanctions to be used by the West to control Africa.
Aside from this, the dependency created by the aid being sent to Africa has stalled innovation and destroyed local businesses. It has weakened the local markets and dampened the spirit of entrepreneurship. Take, for instance, the corn shipped by the UN to Kenya. Recall that we said that a portion of the shipment ends up on the black market where the corn is dumped at extremely low prices. Now, what do you think will be the effect of this on local corn farmers? Local farmers may as well put down their hoes right away; no one can compete with the UN’s World Food Program. And because the farmers go under in the face of this pressure, Kenya would have no reserves to draw on if there actually were a famine next year. It’s a simple but fatal cycle. It’s the same in the textile industry. In 1997, 137,000 workers were employed in Nigeria’s textile industry. By 2003, the figure had dropped to 57,000. Why? Because so-called good Europeans pack their old clothes into a bag and send them to Africa where they are sold at very low prices. And, Africans would prefer to buy these European clothes than clothes made in Africa because of the cost.
The fact is aid has done more harm than good to Africa. It has made Africa to be seen as a helpless continent that cannot do anything to help itself. But, it’s time to change this. Africa can do without foreign aid. If there was no aid, Africa would be forced to find ways to create revenue by itself. It would force Africa to produce and trade with fellow African countries. It would force Africa to improve on infrastructures. When there is no free food that will be sold at low prices, farmers will have to go to the farm. Africa will not fizzle out without Aid, instead, Africa will come out stronger.
It’s time for Africa to stop receiving foreign aid. Africa wake up.