Aid: Africa’s silent killer

Africa has struggled with chronic poverty and underdevelopment because African countries have been recipients of foreign assistance since their independence.

 The contention among many Africans is that the more the north cooperates with the south, the poorer Africa becomes. Africa receives billions of dollars every year, but its countries continue to live in abject poverty.

Economic growth is extremely slow, and African nations are becoming increasingly indebted, with their economies which are ruined by inflation. Aid has not only fallen short of expectations; it has made Africa's situation worse. In many African countries, the government is not involved in society hence they have completely abdicated their responsibility.

The continent is covered with thousands of non-governmental organisation (NGOs) who provide these goods, very often in inefficient ways because they can only target a small number of people. Many of the problems that bedevil Africa right now ranging from economic problems are because of aid that is being given to them.

Aid according to the Oxford English Dictionary refers to anything that one country gives for the benefit of another country. This assistance includes money, but can also be provided in the form of in-kind donations of goods or services such as infrastructure assistance, agriculture training, climate resilience support, peace-building activities, and health care to mention a few.

One of the reasons why aid is under developing Africa is that aid money in Africa is used for famine relief, medical emergencies, drinking water supplies, and other basic needs, which of course is extremely important, but they only attack the symptoms and not the cause. If the money sent is not put into production, people will continue to barely survive with external aid, but will never be able to overcome poverty.

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In addition, foreign aid has benefited the ruling elite by, among other things, helping to perpetuate corrupt governments' hold on to power, thereby enhancing underdevelopment.

Foreign aid has shifted from serving the public to serving African elites and servicing the special interests of government leaders, which has made it difficult for Africa to determine the pace and course of its own development.

The aid ends up being squandered by corrupt political leaders.

 Most African leaders and officials can amass huge sums of personal wealth themselves from the foreign aid received. Former President, Frederick Chiluba, who was a development darling illustrates corrupt leaders in Africa.

He was arrested and was embroiled in a court proceeding for stealing money, hundreds of millions of dollars, which he used to finance clothing and shoes, taking away from education and health care — obviously leaving Africa, and Zambia in particular, with a debt burden. The former President of Malawi also illustrates corrupt leaders in Africa as he was indicted for stealing aid money.

Aid is giving room to laziness on the part of the African policymakers. This may in part explain why, among many African leaders, there is a lack of urgency, in remedying Africa’s critical woes.

This is so because aid flows are viewed rightly as permanent income hence policymakers have no incentive to look for other, better ways of financing their country’s longer-term development. Aid is also under developing Africa because developments cost African countries because they are always indebted to China.  In fact, aid from China is the most accessible to African governments compared to other loans provided by the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank. Regardless, Chinese assistance is proving to be too expensive for Africa.

There has always been fear by onlookers of the Chinese economic colonisation of Africa resulting from the massive loans granted to Africa. China has funded many developmental projects in sub-Saharan Africa consisting among other projects, airports in Kenya, electricity projects, roads and shopping malls in Zambia, upgrading of the Victoria Falls Airport, and construction of the new Parliament building in Zimbabwe and the railway system in Ethiopia. African governments have become so reluctant to generate revenue nor do they listen to the views and opinions of their citizens simply because aid has created dependence. Half of most African country’s budget comes from financial assistance provided by other nations, and international organisations leaving Africans citizens in no position to develop new economic policies, and development agenda.

The aid system encourages poor-country governments to pick up the phone and ask the donor agencies for the next capital infusion. It should be noted that aid is just easy money that fosters corruption and distorts economies, creating a culture of dependency and economic laziness. The African leaders spend their time courting donors to get more money. That means that they have abdicated their responsibilities.

The aid destined for Africa, instead of promoting economic growth, condemned the continent to poverty and continued dependence on international aid for survival.

It has been criticised that even international help has made the few indigenous African producers weaker since they ship discounted goods there that directly compete with those made there. Aid given to poor countries or underdeveloped countries has resulted in the death of local farm industries. Local farmers end up going out of business because they cannot compete with the abundance of cheap imported aid food, that is brought into poor countries as a response to humanitarian crises and natural disasters. The cost of locally produced goods and products rises when enormous amounts of money from the industrialised world enter developing nations.

Due to their unreasonable prices, the export of local goods reduces. As a result, local industries and producers in Africa are forced to go out of business.

There is the issue of “Dutch disease” a term that describes how large inflows of money can kill off a country's export sector, by driving up home prices and thus making their goods too expensive for export hence killing off the export sector.

Aid to Africa has slowed growth and made the impoverished even poorer. The insidious aid culture has left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone. It is not sensible for a whole continent to have its future rely on aid flows and political strategies, policy strategies, that are defined by an NGO class or by foreign aid.

The prescription for economic stability and long-term economic growth is that African governments need to become accountable to their people and responsible for themselves. Governments need to attract more foreign direct investment by creating attractive tax structures and reducing the red tape and complex regulations for businesses. African governments need to become accountable to their people and responsible for themselves.

Governments need to attract more foreign direct investment by creating attractive tax structures and reducing the red tape and complex regulations for businesses. African nations should also focus on increasing trade.

Africa should focus on encouraging investment rather than simply waiting for handouts. Controversially, we advocate turning off the aid taps within five years and claim this will result in more Africans being pulled out of poverty

• ˜ Charlene Tirivavi and Charmaine Matingo are International relations students at Africa University. They write here in their personal capacity