Africa must protect her resources

A British economist and educator has observed that the resources of the African continent will continue to be exploited by those he calls “big sharks” as long as the various economies continue to be heavily influenced by both the IMF and the World Bank.

Kwame Simms, who was in the country to exploit business opportunities, told the dailyEXPRESS that the level of natural resources available in individual African countries should under normal circumstances translate into economic wealth and an improvement in the living standards of the average person.

He said majority of the people in Africa are poor despite the available resources because of the over dependence on foreign aid which come with huge negative consequences to the states.

“Until African governments begin to realize how important it is for them to protect their resources against external exploitation from the west, our people will continue to remain poor while only a hand full of the so-called leaders enjoy,” he said.

Mr. Simms said most African leaders have become beggars, always looking outside for economic hand-outs from the very people who have exploited their resources for the well being of their economies.

He said a country like Ghana should today not be struggling to meet the middle income status bar considering the availability of natural resources in the areas of gold, timber and others.

He wondered what Ghana and the rest of Africa would have been today if steps had been taken in the past to ensure that resources are properly taken care off, and not openly made accessible to the western exploiters.

Mr. Simms insisted that aid given to African governments are just a fraction of what is taken away, and “we should therefore not be too enthusiastic when we receive those insulting packages from these people.”

“These characters come with their two hands. They stretch the left to you in the form of aid and use the right to rob us of those minerals bequeath to us by our great personalities of old,” he said while trying to demonstrate the process.

The British economist did not spare African leaders either, describing most of them as corrupt and boot-lickers, whose only agenda of coming to power was primarily to enrich themselves at the expense of the ordinary people.

Kwame Simms said most politicians on the continent see political leadership as a fertile ground for making money and, therefore, hold positions based on this selfish belief. They come and plunder the economic wealth of the nation, while giving the ordinary people force hope.

Unfortunately, according to him, those who criticize them equally get to power and are found doing the same corrupt things all over again. “Sometimes you wonder what at all is there that influences them negatively like that.”

The Ipswich-born native told the dailyEXPRESS that people of African descent in the West are always willing to invest both material and human resources but are frustrated because of the bureaucratic systems in place.

According to him, it took him almost three years to have his business registered in Ghana because he was considered a foreigner whose interest primarily will be to just repatriate the wealth back to his country.

“Such things if not properly streamlined will always make us lose at the end, he added. -