The image of Africa which over 70% of the world is shown is that Africa is poor and that it’s a jungle or slum filled with sickly, dying and hungry people. Many of the world's people who have never been to Africa, somehow believe that their governments and charity organizations are the ones who feed Africa.
But on the contrary, that is not the case. Africa is the richest continent in the world and is actually the one who has been feeding a great part of the world, for hundreds and thousands of years, till date.
Africa's large mineral and human wealth has been relied upon for centuries. Some of the biggest steel, diamond, gold, crude, and rubber industries of the world were/are located in Africa, but belong to foreigners who mine and take the money back to Europe, America, Asia, and Arabia to fund foreign economies.
Most of the golds and diamonds belonging to most European monarchs, European corporations, American corporations, elites, and companies were stolen from Africa, and to date has not been returned.
If we are to estimate the loss of human and natural resources of Africa, we would find that the world has sucked so much from Africa, has continued to suck, and owes Africa a big debt. But today, we will not focus on the estimate of theft of the post-colonial era. Today, we want to talk about how Africa is the net creditor of the world economies, and how this is done under the watch of bodies such as the IMF, World Bank, FBI, and the rest of the institutions that find it a sport to paint Africa in a bad light.
Full Reports Of How Africa's Wealth Is Stolen
A recent report by different campaign groups have shown the outrageous amounts of money that are being lost by a collection of the 47 African nations and economies to foreigners who operate various kinds of companies in Africa.
In 2015 alone, the groups recorded that African countries credited the world $41.3 billion, which were unregulated and illicit funds, stolen by these foreigners. Between 2014 and 2015, Africa lost $203 Billion to the world.
Although African nations received about $19 billion in the form of aid and grants, it was found that more than three times of that amount was stolen/taken through capital flight, majorly by multinational companies that intentionally manipulate and reduce the value of their imports and exports with the intention of reducing the tax to be paid to African nations. These multinationals operating in Africa repatriate around $32 billion in profits to their home nations. The city of London is the major destination of a large bulk of this stolen money.
The loans given to African nations are so dubious that most African nations pay excessively for loans that did not have any direct impact in the lives of the people. This is because most parts of these loans are stolen through bribery by corrupt politicians and returned to banks in America and Europe. As of 2015, African nations had received a total of $32.8 billion in loans, and have paid $18 Billion which covers a fraction of the interest on the debt and the principal payments. The overall debt still continues to rise today, and when added to the new loans of 2015-2019, Africa is further in disarray.
These loans have come back today to hunt nations like Ghana and Mozambique among others. Ghana is said to be losing around 30% of its national revenue towards the payment of these crazy depths that have high-interest rates that are usually inflated because of speculation of high commodity prices. Mozambique is currently paying £21 for every £1 from a loan it took for an aluminum smelter factory. You can imagine such thievery.
Another $29 billion is stolen every year through illegal logging, fishing and trade in Africa's wildlife/plants.
One other means through which Africa loses great wealth is through the enforcement of climate change laws in Africa. Because Africa has numerous developing economies, it is not fair to impose such laws on her nations, thereby crippling their industrial and production capabilities. The report says that Africa loses about $58 billion every year because of adaptation to climate change.
One other major contributor to the loss of huge amounts of money from Africa is the rich Africans, who have a collective holding of $860 billion. A great part of this money and assets are kept abroad. By 2014, the amount of money that was kept in tax havens in Europe and America by wealthy Africans was estimated to be a whopping $500 billion. Now, this simply means that the wealth that is meant to be kept in Africa and used to develop African economies and people is taken abroad and used by foreigners to develop their own countries.
Conclusion
It is a huge lie when foreign governments paint Africa as a poor continent. No! Africa is not poor! Africa is just being looted by forces without and within.
Africa, despite the many parasites that suck her dry, still boats of a growing and surviving economy. A report states that the largest 500 African companies, in 2014, recorded a collective turnover of $698 billion. While in 2015 Africa's export in oil and minerals reached $232 billion and has continued to grow since then.
Many of the companies that mine Africa's minerals and oil are foreign companies and are always willing to cut corners to cheat African governments, or most times, bride African leaders, so they can steal much of the resources, unchecked.
If the European, Asian and American governments and organizations would be sincere about their concerns for Africa, then they should make conscious efforts to stop the stealing of Africa's wealth and storing of the massive wealth it in their countries and banks.
Reviewed by Okenwa Chinedu
on
December 28, 2020
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