Bring back Africa’s wealth

produced from January to December 2012.
The World Bank uses this as a development indicator. The good news is that since 2008, Zimbabwe’s GDP has been on a steep upward climb. In 2008 Zimbabwe’s GDP was at US$4,4 billion, in 2011 it rose to about US$9,9 billion.
If we continue on this kind of growth path, surely better days are coming.
The weakness of this method of measurement is that it measures the officially recognised final product from a country. What about the unofficially recognised product?
If the bucket that is used to get water from the well has holes, not all the water drawn from the well will get home. We need to know if there are holes in the bucket and the extent of leakage. Are we getting all the water or is it perhaps 60 percent or 30 percent or less that we are getting?
In the past, foreign powers came and either forcefully or through manipulation extracted wealth from Africa. The amount of wealth extracted through this means is unknown but it was vast. To this day foreign extraction of wealth from Africa continues. The sad story is that the nations come to Africa and come out rich but Africans seem not to benefit from their own wealth. Africa is rich, but Africans are poor, this is an enigma.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is said to be potentially able to produce more than the GDPs of the United States and Europe combined, making it the wealthiest place on earth today.
Not even the oil-rich Arab countries can produce more than the DRC. The DRC, however, has some of the poorest people on the planet. The question is how much is unofficially extracted from the DRC? Or if it is officially extracted do the people who are selling the resources negotiate a fair price for them? Are the multinational mining companies giving fair returns for the product?
Such questions need to be asked about Zimbabwe’s mineral wealth.
Are we getting a fair price for our minerals or is our wealth leaking? The leakage can be through multinational companies or through selfish exploitation of resources by a few.
The facts on the ground indicate that there is massive leakage in Africa, wealth gets lost in unexplained ways. A few research findings and well-known facts will illustrate this. Before giving these facts I need to point out that these are known corrupt practices that some African leaders have been involved in.
While the corruption and exploitation of other parts of the world (the West, the North and the East) is a contributing factor, they will not be interacted with in this article. Some writers have explored this area, but this article will focus on what we as Africans are doing to contribute to this leakage.
It is a well-known fact that Mobutu Sese Seko had an estimated US$6 billion in Swiss banks at the time of his death.
This money has not been recovered. In fact, 25 percent of money in Swiss banks is African money and if it was returned the European economy would collapse.
So African money, likely gained through corruption, is keeping Europe going today. In 1984 Mobutu could have paid off his country’s national debt from money that he had personally amassed. GDP figures for Zaire as it was called then did not reflect this great leakage of resources.
Sani Abacha, when he was head of state in Nigeria, siphoned an estimated US$7,5 billion out of Nigeria. Obasanjo’s government traced US$3 billion or US$4 billion in assets to Abacha’s family and representatives. They recovered some of the resources but much is still unaccounted for.
Dambisa Moyo in her book “Dead Aid” says: “. . . corruption analysts estimate at least US$10 billion — nearly half of Africa’s 2003 foreign aid receipts — depart Africa every year . . . It is truly tragic that while stolen aid monies sit and earn interest in private accounts abroad, the countries for which the money was destined have stagnated, and even regressed.”
She controversially argues that no more aid should be sent to Africa, saying in the past 50 years, more than US$1 trillion in development-related aid has been siphoned out of Africa and the ones who were supposed to get this aid are worse off than when the aid was given. She argues that instead of improving people’s lives, aid worsens it. It just increases their debt, makes those in power richer and entrenches their destructive rule.
Léonce Ndikumana and James Boyce in their 2011 book “Africa’s Odious Debts”, show that, contrary to the popular perception of Africa being a drain on the financial resources of the West, the continent is actually a net creditor to the rest of the world.
The extent of capital flight from sub-Saharan Africa is remarkable: more than US$700 billion in the past four decades. But Africa’s foreign assets remain private and hidden, while its foreign debts are public, owed by the people of Africa through their governments.
They say that Zimbabwe could pay back its debt five times if its foreign resources in private hands were returned.
The issue is that much undeclared consumption of resources is taking place. While we are doing relatively well in Zimbabwe, I suspect if the gross domestic consumption was known and questions asked as to how exactly these huge amounts of money that people suddenly have were acquired we might begin to better manage our God-given resources to benefit everyone.
It seems as Africans we are happy to just accept that somebody is rich but fail to ask the accountability questions.
While some generate wealth through industry and entrepreneurship we tend not to ask how exactly all the wealth people have came. Mobutu had more money than his country, yet it seems nobody questioned this.
The saddest part of all this is that the few who exploit and abuse national resources benefit at the expense of the nation. This wealth is the God-given right and inheritance of our children and children’s children.
When the nation becomes poorer it fails to be attractive to our children. It is a sad testimony to the parents of children in the DRC that their children want to go to countries like Belgium and France to look for a better life but if they managed their wealth those children would have more than the combined wealth of children in all of the US and Europe. This is a king going to ask food from a pauper. How sad.
Zimbabwe has the richest deposit of diamonds in the world, the second richest deposit of platinum and vast amounts of mineral wealth. Why are the people not rich?
Where is the leakage happening? Is it because we are selling raw product and do not have the expertise and technology to make our own final products? Are we selling the resources at a good price?
Are resources being declared or is there massive unofficial production and selling? When I hear someone talking about GDP my mind goes to GDC.
I then wonder how many holes are in the bucket. If our bucket has holes let us close them, or better still let us get a new bucket. Measure the GDC, not the GDP! No more small houses that we don’t know of please. Let all the money come home!