By Jan Masila
USA
African governments have depended on aid from the west and Bretton Wood institutions for a long time. Statistics have continued to show that aid is not good for Africa rather it creates a system of dependence and promotes lack of accountability and corruption when government officials divert funds meant to benefit the poor. Most of these funds are misused in white elephant projects with the reminder ending up in the private secret bank accounts of the ruling class.
USA
African governments have depended on aid from the west and Bretton Wood institutions for a long time. Statistics have continued to show that aid is not good for Africa rather it creates a system of dependence and promotes lack of accountability and corruption when government officials divert funds meant to benefit the poor. Most of these funds are misused in white elephant projects with the reminder ending up in the private secret bank accounts of the ruling class.
Honest African governments should strive to empower their people instead of begging for help to finance projects.
Here are a few steps that governments can take to ensure proper empowerment of its citizens with the resulting factor of self reliance hence the ability to finance budgets with funds earned within the country.
Step 1
Promotion of infrastructure by constructing good roads to make transport and communication easy.
Step 2
Creating employment opportunities by constructing small scale industries to enable people get access to jobs hence creating a vibrant middle class..
Step 3
Educating people on how to save and invest wisely, this may be done through organising seminars and conferences deep within the rural areas and the city.
Step 4
Promoting agriculture and farming which are the main sources of income in rural areas, providing technical advice and professional services to farmers.
Step 5
Making it easy to access credit facilities to enable the rural population get access on finance through loans and grants.
Step 6
Providing quality health care to the citizens since healthy people are likely to be more productive and useful to the economy. This ensures availability of healthy workforce.
Step 7
Taming corruption which is the main reason why there is poverty in Africa
Step 8
Promotion of peace and unity as a guarantee for political instability which in turn creates a good climate for investiment.
Step 9
Creation of market opportunities to enable the rural population sell their goods at favourable prices.
Step 10
Promotion of a single national language that acts as a bond of unity, for example credit to Julius Nyerere, Tanzania has enjoyed relative stability for the most part because of the swahili language which is spoken by all citizens
These are just a few of steps that a country can employ to empower its own people and promote national development. Empowered people are a benefit to a country while disempowered people will always be a liability to their government depending on handouts and perennial help which is a circus that has no end.
