Western markets will not wipe Africa’s poverty
Feb 23, 2005
MOSES Byaruhanga in <i>The New Vision</i> of February 11, argues that what Africa needs to spur her development is not aid, but trade, and that “the problem in Africa is that we produce what we do not consume and consume what we do not produceâ€.
DAN LUMONYA
MOSES Byaruhanga in The New Vision of February 11, argues that what Africa needs to spur her development is not aid, but trade, and that “the problem in Africa is that we produce what we do not consume and consume what we do not produceâ€.
He further argues that Africa sells raw materials without value addition and buys finished products from the developed countries manufactured from those same materials she sold in raw form, thereby donating jobs to the western countries that manufacture those products.
Many people might see merit in that argument. What Byaruhanga does not say, and which has been repeated, but hardly acknowledged by the Government is the rampant corruption, the high cost of public administration and out-right wastage of public resources.
The New Vision also revealed that the Entebbe State House is being renovated at $33m (over sh55b). In the same edition of the paper it is reported that sh 25b had been spent on the recovery of the of northern Uganda. What an irony Byaruhanga!
Currently, expenditures in State House alone, stands at a staggering sh33b a year! On average construction of a borehole costs sh2m. This means money that could construct 16,500 water points for rural Ugandans is spent in state house every year.
Research has shown that ill health is a major reason for keeping households poor and that diseases related to the lack of clean water are a big contributor to illness. We need to reprioritise our expenditures, even before we begin to blame western protectionism for our own shortcomings.
Uganda, I am told, is about the size of the state of Oregon in the US. The economy of state of Oregon is far much bigger than that of Uganda. Given that the USA is a federal state, the governor of Oregon would be the equivalent of the president here. But Oregon state does not sponsor a very big and expensive motorcade for their governor. Her ministers do not have the privilege of two official cars, complete with free housing and foreign trips for their spouses and children, and are certainly not as many as 62. They do not support a large and expensive military in the way that our countries here do. They also do not have a presidential jet for their governor!
Byaruhanga argues that Africa’s problems will not be solved by western aid. We could argue along the same lines that Africa’s problems will not necessarily be solved by access to western markets. After all, access to western markets will not guarantee that the benefits of that trade will reach the rural masses. This is clearly manifested by the AGOA project, which he espouses. Nigeria, which earns much oil revenues from western markets, is not in any less of a crisis than the one in which Uganda is.
What we urgently need are structural reforms that will hold leaders accountable for the decisions that they take and for our money that they spend. It seems colonialism dislocated the social, political and economic structures in a way that has not been corrected, but which is instead maintained by foreign aid, and by the post-colonial governments.
The consumption habits that Byaruhanga mentions are after all mostly a consequence of the colonial project of cultural assimilation that has not been addressed but is instead promoted by our educational and political institutions.
Yes we might need western markets, but it seems to me that we need regional markets even much more. I do not agree that African markets are too small when we have not given the opportunity for them to flourish but have instead taken actions that diminish them. Western markets are very far any way and will insist on very artificial standards that we might not satisfy.
We need to fast-track regional integration and to remove all those non-tariff barriers that frustrate trade with our neighbours in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The post-colonial political set up is keeping us in vestiges of bondage, which must be unshackled if we are to achieve true freedom and development.
The writer is a lecturer, Dept of SWSA, Makerere University
MOSES Byaruhanga in The New Vision of February 11, argues that what Africa needs to spur her development is not aid, but trade, and that “the problem in Africa is that we produce what we do not consume and consume what we do not produceâ€.
He further argues that Africa sells raw materials without value addition and buys finished products from the developed countries manufactured from those same materials she sold in raw form, thereby donating jobs to the western countries that manufacture those products.
Many people might see merit in that argument. What Byaruhanga does not say, and which has been repeated, but hardly acknowledged by the Government is the rampant corruption, the high cost of public administration and out-right wastage of public resources.
The New Vision also revealed that the Entebbe State House is being renovated at $33m (over sh55b). In the same edition of the paper it is reported that sh 25b had been spent on the recovery of the of northern Uganda. What an irony Byaruhanga!
Currently, expenditures in State House alone, stands at a staggering sh33b a year! On average construction of a borehole costs sh2m. This means money that could construct 16,500 water points for rural Ugandans is spent in state house every year.
Research has shown that ill health is a major reason for keeping households poor and that diseases related to the lack of clean water are a big contributor to illness. We need to reprioritise our expenditures, even before we begin to blame western protectionism for our own shortcomings.
Uganda, I am told, is about the size of the state of Oregon in the US. The economy of state of Oregon is far much bigger than that of Uganda. Given that the USA is a federal state, the governor of Oregon would be the equivalent of the president here. But Oregon state does not sponsor a very big and expensive motorcade for their governor. Her ministers do not have the privilege of two official cars, complete with free housing and foreign trips for their spouses and children, and are certainly not as many as 62. They do not support a large and expensive military in the way that our countries here do. They also do not have a presidential jet for their governor!
Byaruhanga argues that Africa’s problems will not be solved by western aid. We could argue along the same lines that Africa’s problems will not necessarily be solved by access to western markets. After all, access to western markets will not guarantee that the benefits of that trade will reach the rural masses. This is clearly manifested by the AGOA project, which he espouses. Nigeria, which earns much oil revenues from western markets, is not in any less of a crisis than the one in which Uganda is.
What we urgently need are structural reforms that will hold leaders accountable for the decisions that they take and for our money that they spend. It seems colonialism dislocated the social, political and economic structures in a way that has not been corrected, but which is instead maintained by foreign aid, and by the post-colonial governments.
The consumption habits that Byaruhanga mentions are after all mostly a consequence of the colonial project of cultural assimilation that has not been addressed but is instead promoted by our educational and political institutions.
Yes we might need western markets, but it seems to me that we need regional markets even much more. I do not agree that African markets are too small when we have not given the opportunity for them to flourish but have instead taken actions that diminish them. Western markets are very far any way and will insist on very artificial standards that we might not satisfy.
We need to fast-track regional integration and to remove all those non-tariff barriers that frustrate trade with our neighbours in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The post-colonial political set up is keeping us in vestiges of bondage, which must be unshackled if we are to achieve true freedom and development.
The writer is a lecturer, Dept of SWSA, Makerere University