May 2021 – President Akufo Addo : address to Pres. Macron at Paris Summit on Financing African Economies 18 May 2021 :
CANCEL AFRICA’S DEBTS; RESTRUCTURE GLOBAL FINANCIAL ARCHITECTURE” – PRESIDENT AKUFO-ADDO :
https://presidency.gov.gh/index.php/briefing-room/news-style-2/1912-cancel-africa-s-debts-restructure-global-financial-architecture-president-akufo-addo
Ghana launches campaign for New Economic Paradigm, Oct 2020 :
African Parliaments Launch Debt Cancellation Campaign:
https://www.modernghana.com/news/1036923/african-parliaments-launch-debt-cancellation-campa.html
Speakers, heads of African parliaments heighten calls for debt cancellation:
DISCOURSE ON THE DEBT, 33 YEARS ON
by PD Lawton, 15 November 2020
Today, Africa stands at the cross-roads. This is the last opportunity for the continent`s leadership to decide the fate of 1.3 billion people.
This is the most crucial moment in Africa`s history. The choice on one hand, is to continue following IMF diktat and agree to a future of economic policy that benefits the banks of Wall Street and the City of London. For that choice there is a bribe which is called the Green Finance Package. [1]
Kenya, sadly, has become the first to accept the UN Green Finance Package which was received by Kenya`s Central Bank this week.It has chosen to appease the Paris Club and protect its credit rating.
By accepting the Green Bribe, Kenya is committing to a zero-growth policy. The Green New Deal will not fund fossil-fuel or nuclear energy. Without reliable, cheap energy, it is impossible to power development and industrialize an economy. Renewables cannot run a steel mill. Hydropower has its physical limits in terms of transmission distance and it is not a possibility without considerable water volume.
Does Kenya want to continue relying on tourism and agriculture, a green economy? How will that eliminate poverty?
The Green New Deal puts emphasis on digital infrastructure. What is the point in having network coverage when there is no modern road, rail, bridge or port along which to transport your goods?
The alternative is the only choice that will end poverty and propel African economies into a prosperous future. That choice is to re-invest historical debt into the physical economy.
This week Zambia became the first African state to default on its international debt since the start of the Covid Pandemic.
Zambia`s debt situation is being politicized in ugly attempts at discrediting President Lungu`s progressive economic policy and strong friendship with China. The politicization is also aimed at China which is still being blamed for creating debt traps and debt book diplomacy even though this kind of anti-China propaganda has now itself, been discredited.
Over the last few years, Zambia has had the foresight to invest heavily in physical infrastructure. This has been largely financed by China`s Development Bank as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Zambia`s appeal this week to the Eurobond holders for deferment of payment has been rejected. In contrast, China has already annulled a number of loans to African governments, including Zambia, and deferred payment on others since Covid-19 triggered further economic difficulty. Some Chinese loans will become interest free. In 2018, at the historic Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, Zambia secured a $30 million interest-free loan and a $30 million grant from China .
On-going attacks on President Lungu`s government have come from foreign funded anti-China campaigns .The President has responded to critics and said:
“I implore you to ignore the misleading headlines that seek to malign our relationship with China by mischaracterising our economic cooperation to mean colonialism.”
Leading Zambian economist and head of Zambia’s Private Sector Development Association, Yosuf Dodia, said that Chinese investment should be seen as an opportunity not a burden.”Zambia has been dominated by the West for 100 years… and we are seeing poverty all over the continent,” he said.
That is the general consensus of African governments who defend the Chinese model. Compared to other creditors ( like the IMF) Chinese banks offer far better terms. The interest is in some cases non-existent or else at very low rates of interest. There are lengthy periods of grace before payments commence and much longer re-payment periods. And unlike Western banks, the Chinese banks are lending, extending credit for the express purposes of uplifting the standard of living of African nations.
China`s Exim Bank is extending credit for mega-infrastructure projects, for development of goods and services. That`s exactly what a bank is supposed to exist for, for the extension of credit for projects that will create progress and the upliftment of a nation`s standard of living. And it is exactly what the City of London-Wall Street banking empire does not do.
It is 33 years since Thomas Sankara, president of Burkina Faso, called upon Africa`s leadership to renounce the continent`s debt. In a speech given on the 29 July, 1987, at the OAU ( Organization of African Unity) Summit in Addis Abeba, he said this:
“We think that debt must be seen from the standpoint of its origins. Debts origins come from colonialism`s origins. Those who lend us money are those who colonized us before. They are those who used to manage our states and economies. Colonizers are those who indebted Africa through their brothers and cousins who were the lenders. We are strangers to this debt. Therefore we cannot pay for it. Debt is neo- colonialism in which the colonizers transform themselves into `technical assistants`. In fact it is better to say `technical assassins`.
They present us with financing, with financial backers, as if someone`s backing could create development! We have been advised to go to these recommended lenders. We have been proposed with nice financial set-ups. We have been indebted for 50, 60 years and more. That means we have been led to compromise our people for 50 years and more.
Under its current form the debt is a formula for controlled imperialism; debt is a cleverly managed re-conquest of Africa aiming at subjugating its growth and development through foreign rules. Thus each one of us becomes the financial slave, that is to say – a true slave to those who were treacherous enough to put money in our countries with obligations for us to repay. We are told to repay, but it is not a moral issue. It is not about this so-called honour of repaying or not!”
Debt servicing and restrictive loans for poor countries, in these current times , is more than immoral!
As written in an article on Africa and the World:
“Oxfam reported “84 percent of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) COVID-19 loans encourage, and in some cases require, poor countries hard hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic to adopt more tough austerity measures in the aftermath of the health crisis”. New analysis by Oxfam finds that 76 out of the 91 IMF loans negotiated with 81 countries since March 2020 – when the pandemic was declared – push for belt-tightening that could result in deep cuts to public healthcare systems and pension schemes, wage freezes and cuts for public sector workers such as doctors, nurses and teachers, and unemployment benefits, like sick pay.”
Africa`s debt, to the IMF, is a creation of a neo-liberal economic system of so-called Free Trade that has deliberately withheld industrialization from African economies. The debt should have been renounced in 1987 . But it wasn`t. Instead Thomas Sankara was assassinated for what he said.
Today the situation has changed. Africa`s debt burden to the IMF remains immoral. Debt servicing across the continent has taken precedence over health, over food to the hungry, over education , over everything that matters. If debt is to be seen from the standpoint of its origins, then we need to look at debt which has its origins in the Belt and Road Initiative. That is debt owed to China since the beginning of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 to construct infrastructure and build economic corridors.
The G20 announced its Debt Service Suspension Initiative in April this year. This is a non-binding agreement but pressure is being put on China to join the Paris Club of creditors.
This initiative is an attack on China. The intention is to de-rail the Belt and Road Initiative. China, which only accounts for 17% of Africa`s debt, is not liable to pay for the decades of the IMF`s economic assassination.
The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), will not create prosperity without massive infrastructure development. Without transport networks,AfCFTA is like a body without veins.
Aliko Dangote of the Dangote Group and financer of Nigeria`s first oil refinery has said that infrastructure is more important right now than any trade agreements and that manufacturing and processing of goods on African soil has to become a priority, but for that, infrastructure once again takes precedence.
Lawrence Freeman, Africa analyst , explains the importance of infrastructure :
“What African nations most desperately need, and which will have the greatest impact of their economies, is infrastructure, infrastructure, and more infrastructure. It is not hyperbole to state that the lack of infrastructure is responsible for millions of deaths on the continent. The dearth of on-grid energy, arguably the most crucial component of an industrialized-manufacturing society, is preventing African nations from attaining the levels of economic growth required to sustain their populations.”
In October, 7 African parliaments called for the continent`s debt to be annulled. The Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, has initiated the Conference of Speakers and Heads of African Parliaments (CoSAP) which is the body that is launching the African debt write-off campaign. The 7 countries represented are Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa. Algeria, Morocco, Cote D’Ivoire, and Cape Verde have also expressed their desire to join.
Professor Aaron Oquaye, Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament recently gave an interview with CGTN in which he called for “a New Paradigm.” ” A New Paradigm”, he said” which cannot take place under the present world [economic] arrangement.” He said that debt servicing was a game of “robbing Peter, to pay Paul” creating a never ending “cycle of poverty, misery and disease.”. “Debt cancellation”, he said “is a matter of liberating us.” In other words, it is a final end to colonialism.”And in order, even, to maximise our raw resources, we need a new world economic order. How do we balance processing? For example, taking our foods, vegetables and also fruits, processing them in competition against foreign cheap products? No country, ever, in this world, you know, got economic self dependency by allowing cheap competition..” Professor Oquaye is not advocating for total isolationist policy but against the utterly unfair advantage of the mega-corporations that have been the only beneficiaries of the financial elite`s `globalism`.[2]
Africa`s leaders must unite to demand that all debt which has been accrued for anything except constructing infrastructure, which includes health care and water sanitation, will no longer be paid. It will instead be re-invested into the physical economy for the benefit of all.
Building the physical economy of central Africa, must begin with international financing of the Transaqua Project. To construct the world`s largest engineering project, will require a change of heart, will and motivation from the privately-owned central banks. In fact, it will require that the banking order is replaced by a new Bretton Woods system which extends credit for mankind, not for money. Those that gave Africa economic assassins want to fool us again with their phony version of a New Bretton Woods [3], under their Great Reset, which is a zero-growth policy. In terms of Africa, it is to kill the African Dream.
Stop greening the debt, stop politicizing the debt. Review the debt and where applicale re-invest into the physical economy.
TRANSCRIPT OF SANKARA`s Discours sur le Dette
We think that debt must be seen from the standpoint of its origins. Debts origins come from colonialism`s origins. Those who lend us money are those who colonized us before.They are those who used to manage our states and economies. Colonizers are those who indebted Africa through their brothers and cousins who were the lenders. We are strangers to this debt. Therefore we cannot pay for it. Debt is neo colonialism in which the colonizers transform themselves into `technical assistants`. In fact it is better to say `technical assasins`.
They present us with financing, with financial backers, as if someone`s back could create development! We have been advised to go to these recommended lenders. We have been proposed with nice financial set-ups. We have been indebted for 50, 60 years and more. That means we have been led to compromise our people for 50 years and more.
Under its current form the debt is a formula for controlled imperialism; debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa aiming at subjugating its growth and development through foreign rules. Thus each one of us becomes the financial slave, that is to say – a true slave to those who were treacherous enough to put money in our countries with obligations for us to repay. We are told to repay, but it is not a moral issue. It is not about this so-called honour of repaying or not!
Mr President we have been listening and applauding Norway`s prime minister when she spoke right here. She is European but she said the whole debt cannot be repaid. The debt cannot be repaid, first because if we don`t pay the lenders will not die. That is for sure. But if we repay we are going to die. That is for sure.
Those who led us to indebting have gambled like in a casino. As long as they had gains, there was no debate. But now they suffer losses they demand repayment. And we talk about crisis! No they played, they lost and that is the rule of the game. Life goes on.
We cannot repay the debt because we do not have the means to do so. We cannot repay because we are not responsible for the debt. We cannot repay but the other owe us what the greatest wealth could never repay. That is the debt of blood. Our blood has flowed. We hear about the Marshall Plan that rebuilt the economies of Europe. But we never hear about the Africa Plan that let Europe face the Hitlerian hordes. When their economies and their stability was at stake. Who saved Europe. It was Africa. No one rarely mentions it. To such a point that we cannot really be the accomplices of that thankless silence. If others cannot sing our praises then at least we must say that our fathers have been courageous and that our troops saved Europe and set the world free from Nazism.
Debt is also the result of confrontation. When we are told about economic crisis, nobody says that this crisis did not come out suddenly.The crisis has always been there but it gets worse each time the masses become more and more conscious of their fight against exploitation.We are in a crisis today because the masses refuse for wealth to be concentrated into a few individuals` hands. We are in a crisis because some people are saving huge sums of money in foreign bank accounts that would be enough to develop Africa! We are in a crisis because on one side is this private wealth that we cannot name and on the other side are the masses who don`t want to live in ghettos and slums. We are in a crisis because on one hand there is Soweto and facing it is Johannesburg. There is a fight and the amplification of it worries those with the financial power. Now we are asked to be accomplices in a balancing, a balancing that favors those with the financial power .[ SAPs – Africa`s austerity program] Balancing against the masses. No we will not be accomplices!
No we will not comply with those who suck on our people`s blood and live on our people`s sweat!We cannot go with them in their march of assasination!
Mr President, we hear about clubs, Club of Rome, Club of Paris, club of everywhere. We hear about Group of 5, Group of 7, group of 10 and maybe group of 100 or whatever else. It is normal then for us to have our own club and our own group. Let Addis Abeba starting from now become a new breath. The Club of Addis Abeba , a united front against debt. That is the only way to assert that this is not a bellicose move on our part in refusing to repay. On the contrary it is a fraternal move to say it as it is!
Further more the masses of Europe are not opposed to the masses of Africa. Those who expolit Africa are those who exploit Europe too! We have a common enemy.
So our Club of Addis Abeba will have to explain to everyone that the debt will not be repaid. And that by saying that we are not against morals, dignity or keeping one`s word. We think we don`t have the same morality as others. Morality is not the same for the rich and the poor.The Bible and the Koran cannot serve both the exploiters and the exploited in the same way. If it could be used in favor of both sides, there should be 2 different editions of the Bible and 2 different editions of the Koran.
We cannot accept to be told about dignity and be told of the virtue of those who repay and the disvirtue of those who don`t. On the contrary we must recognise that the biggest thieves are the wealthiest . When a poor man steals it is just a theft, a piccadillo, it`s just about survival, a necessity. When the rich man steals it is with financial authority , from customs duty. They are the ones who exploit the people.
My proposal dose not aim at showing off or provoking, I just want to say what each one of us thinks and wishes. Who here doesn`t want the debt to be just cancelled? Anyone who doesn`t can get on a plane and go straight away to the World Bank and pay it!
I would not want to think Burkina Faso`s proposal is coming from youth and immaturity, inexperience. Don`t think it is only revolutionaries that say these things. It is only objectivity and obligation. Take for example others who have said not to repay , revolutionaries and non-revolutionaries, old and young. Fidel Castro said not to pay, he is not my age. Francois Mitterand said African countries should not have to pay, he is not a revolutionary!
The Norwegian prime minister said not to pay, she is not my age and I would hold it against myself to ask her age! President Felix Houphouet Boigny, he is not my age and he officially declared that Cote D`Ivoire will not pay. Now Cote D`Ivoire is the richest country of Francophone Africa and that is way he naturally has to pay more contributions here! So in my case it is not provocation. Mr President, I would like to ask you to offer us wise solutions. I would like this conference to adopt as a necessity the refusal of repayment. Not with bellicose intentions but to prevent us all from being individually assassinated. If Burkina Faso stands alone in refusing to pay, I will not be here at the next conference! But with everyone`s support which I need we can avoid repaying. Instead we can devote our small resources to our own development. And I would like to conclude by saying that each time an African country buys a gun it is against an African. It is not against a European, it is not against an Asian country. It is against an African country. Consequently we should take advantage of the debt issue to solve the weapons problem.
I am military and I have a gun.But Mr President I would like us to disarm. Because I carry the only gun I have but others have concealed guns! My dear brothers with everyone`s support we will make peace at home. We will also use these huge potentialities to develop Africa. Because our soil and our sub-soil are so rich. We have enough labor force and vast markets north to south and east to west. We have enough intellectual abilities to create or to at least use technology and science from wherever we can find it. Let`s set up this Addis Abeba united front against debt. Let us make from Addis Abeba a commitment of limiting armaments among weak and poor countries.Clubs and knives we buy are useless. Let`s make the African market the market of Africans.Produce in Africa, manufacture in Africa and consume in Africa.Let`s produce what we need, consume what we produce instead of importing.
Burkina Faso came here displaying our cotton fabric.Produced in Burkina Faso, weaved in Burkina Faso, sewed in Burkina Faso to clothe Burkinabe. Our delegation here are dressed by our weavers, by our farmers.There is not a single thread here from America or Europe! I will not do a fashion show but I will simply say we must accept to live African.That is the only way to live free and dignified.
I thank you Mr President.
The homeland or death. We shall overcome!