The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Africa

  • Africa Re holds African Awards in June

    The African Reinsurance Corporation (Africa Re) is to hold its fifth African Insurance Awards to reward and celebrate innovation, good corporate management and good leadership in the African insurance industry.

    The company, in a statement, said this year’s edition would take place on Monday, June 10 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

    According to the statement, there are four categories of awards in this edition.

    The statement read: “There are four categories of awards in this year’s edition. They include, Insurance Company of the Year, CEO of the Year, Innovation of the Year and InsurTech Breakthrough. Insurance Company of the Year prize is open to all insurance companies registered in Africa and focusing on performance in the last two years.  CEO of the Year is a special award given to the CEO of a company, who has made an outstanding contribution over the past 12 months or more, either through the advancement of his or her company or the industry in Africa.’’

  • Africa records decline in maternal deaths – UN

    The United Nations has disclosed that there is a decline in maternal deaths in Africa.

    The Gambia Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System, Ms. Seraphine Wekana, made this disclosure during the Pan-African Youth Conference holding in Banjul, The Gambia.

    According to her, the decline has been reduced due to improved health services and increase in the area of childbearing.

    “Africa has recorded significant decline in maternal death which can be attributed to improved health services in terms of access and quality. The age of childbearing has also increased significantly. “

    Seraphine, however, said that Africa still experiences the highest number of child mortality deaths urging governments at all levels to work towards reducing the indices.

    She lamented the high level of gender inequality in the continent saying women and girls continue to be disadvantaged in harnessing their potentials.

    “We need to accelerate our efforts to work at safeguarding the future of women and girls by enabling them to fully harness their potentials.

  • Africa records decline in maternal deaths – UN

    The United Nations has disclosed that there is a decline in maternal deaths in Africa and The Gambia, lauding the efforts of governments of the continent in achieving this feat.

    The Gambia Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System, Ms. Seraphine Wekana made this disclosure during the Pan-African Youth Conference holding in Banjul, The Gambia.

    According to her, the decline has been reduced due to improved health services and an increase in childbearing.

    “Africa has recorded a significant decline in maternal death which can be contributed to improved health services in terms of access and quality. The age of childbearing has also increased significantly. ”

    Seraphine, however, said that Africa still experiences the highest number of child mortality deaths urging governments at all level to work towards reducing these indices.

    She lamented the high level of gender inequality in the continent saying women and girls continue to be disadvantaged in harnessing their potentials.

    Seraphine charged the youths to work at promoting gender equality and hold the leaders accountable for ending inequality.

    “We need to accelerate our efforts to work at safeguarding the future of women and girls by enabling them to fully harness their potentials.

    “It is the responsibility of youths to promote gender equality and hold leaders accountable for ending inequality, it is the youths that have the voice to end the inequality in the continent, it is your call and you can end this.”

    The Resident Coordinator reiterated the commitment of the United Nations towards ensuring that Africa achieves the SDG and contribute to the initiative in the position of education, health, skill empowerment, and youth employment by devising programme in agriculture, food security, entrepreneurship, migration, health as well as water and sanitation among others.”

    She declared that the united Nations System will work together with the youth to be able to change the indices if inequality in the continent.

    She then called on the youths to come up with recommendations during the conference that will move and develop the African continent.

  • The ‘Coding’ fallacy

    Over the past few years, the idea that computer programming or “Coding” is the key to Africa’s unemployment and development problems has bloomed across the continent.

    In Nigeria, the bug catches on in real time. The desire to make coding a “new basic” skill for all Nigerians has driven the formation of coding schools, non-profit concerns and policy cultures.

    It’s amusing to see governors presiding over states with inadequately funded schools, barely stocked and mostly empty libraries, underpaid teachers, make a public show of giving indigent pupils scholarships to participate in coding workshops.

    Coding is just another gimmick from the digital cult of distraction. As Rojek points out, it masks the real stagnation of life, hiding its decomposition behind thick layers of sheen and contrived glitter.

    The coding movement, like previous forms of distraction, seduces us to engage in imitative but ill-suited enlightenment. It asks and deflects in one breath, what Hedges would call, the moral questions arising from mounting social injustice, growing inequalities, costly imperial wars, economic collapse, and political corruption.

    We live in a world were education is continually mauled and reconstructed to be market-friendly. Thus the recent fascination with coding, the notion that Africa and Nigeria’s children and youth will profit by the over-hyped precepts and algorithms of programming – it’s all part of a corporately-managed Nirvana, tentacles of the same calamari.

    Critics of the coding train allege that its primary goal is to increase the number of programmers on the market and thus trigger a regime of dismal wages, even as tech companies smile to the banks.

    Many parents, too, are encouraging their children to learn to code. The recent boom in kids coding classes draws attention to public perceptions that coding is a crucial part of children education.

    The attainment of coding skills by children, the girl-child and housewives, in particular, has been fetishized as the panacea to societal problems even though the promoters of such cause are aware that the provision of well stocked libraries, stable electricity supply, standard school science laboratories, well-paid teachers, food security, and humane public health policies, among others would the cited beneficiaries greater good.

    Coding, as promoted by STEM-based learning programmes, is sold as the major guarantee of employability now and in the future in an industry that seems to be growing and evolving more rapidly than we can keep up. But is this the reality? As Myranda Leigh Harris would ask, how many more coders could we possibly need?

    The fact remains that barely half of high school and university students who major in science, technology, engineering or math-related subjects secure employment in their field after graduation.

    That certainly casts doubt on the idea that there is a “skills gap” between workers’ abilities and employers’ needs, notes Kate Miltner Ph.D candidate in Communication, University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

    Speaking on America’s coding culture, she says: “Concerns about these disparities has helped justify investment in tech education over the past 20 years. As millions of dollars flow to technology companies in the name of education, they often bypass other major needs of U.S. schools.

    “Technology in the classroom can’t solve the problems that budget cuts, large class sizes and low teacher salaries create. Worse still, new research is finding that contemporary tech-driven educational reforms may end up intensifying the problems they were trying to fix. Who will benefit most from this new computer science push? History tells us that it may not be students.”

    Indeed, the jury is out over the real beneficiaries of the coding train. A cursory look around would reveal that most of the non-profits advancing the coding train are affiliated to big business and trust funds’ handout list. There has to be something wrong in that, right?

    Yet the frantic quest to acquire programming skills may be unnecessary. Using traditional terminology, data scientist, Kady M, analyses why programming newbies comprising students and 30-something-year olds, learning to code, would be switching jobs before they turn 40 or 50 perhaps.

    The obsession with coding, it would seem, is ill-informed and misdirected. Kady traces society’s never-ending digital shuttles on the coding train. The basic development of programming language, she notes, occurred in the 1950s-60s, when mainframe computing, starting with many different vendors entered the marketplace. The period ends with the IBM 370 being the de facto computing standard, and COBOL being the de facto programming language.

    In the 1970s, minicomputers entered the venue, triggering a resurgence in the use of FORTRAN alongside COBOL. Personal computing emerged in the 1980s and computer programming shifted to the IBM PC/Microsoft combination. Program development was primarily done in BASIC.

    Client/Server computing emerged in the 1990s. Object oriented computing begin to appear, with C++ being the most prevalent. Programming tools such as IBM’s VisualAge also appear, and 4th generation computing languages are developed.

    In the 2000’s, internet technologies took hold. HTML became the internet’s common language. Java also became the core computer language of the internet.

    As you read, the core internet technologies are supplemented by cloud computing and microservices, which are single-purpose programs running in the cloud to do very specific things for programmers.

    Through these periods, there had been a large but temporary increase in the number of programmers needed, but the number employed per unit of output rapidly decreases near the end of the period.

    “Bottom line: In the beginning of the period you needed a lot of programmers to develop a given output; at the end of the period, you needed a lot less (like, maybe one) to do a job that previously took maybe a hundred to do,” says Kady.

    Today, companies are pushing economies of scale by moving computing functions off their own premises and into the Cloud. This is requiring a load of new programmers aka “Coders,” fluent in microservice technologies over the next decade or so, as existing programs are re-tooled and modernised.

    But coders, data scientists warn, should learn from history as software companies are already working overtime to put them on the unemployment line. They want to decrease how labour intensive the re-platforming to microservices is; experts argue that if you are writing scripts to drive and link these services today, you won’t be doing that in a couple of years. Somebody with much less skill than you, but who understands the higher level programming tool, will be doing your job.

    Also, there is a new player that makes the above even more drastic in terms of shortening coding careers: Artificial Intelligence (AI).

    The coding skills that children acquire today will be outdated by the time they are ready to enter the workforce, educators argue, and stress that, the more meaningful purpose of a good STEM education, is to help students develop skills in critical thinking, exploration, and problem solving-?skills that are emphasised in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classrooms and approaches.

    These are the skills that will guide youth toward becoming more employable in the future in any profession, any position, any field. And while we can use coding as a platform for STEM-based learning, coding is not?—?and should not be?—?the only hands-on activity to develop and harness these skills.

  • Africa and protection of children’s rights

    SIR; AFRICA’s foremost sage and rights activist, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, on August 2, 1996 groaningly emphasized, “Africa is renowned for its beauty, its natural heritage and prolific resources – but equally, the image of its suffering children haunts the conscience of our continent and the world”. Similarly, at the launch of the Blue Train, Worcester Station, South Africa on September 27, 1997, Mandela ardently expressed, “The true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children”. Yet again, at a luncheon hosted by the then United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, another pride to the continent at the Special Session of the UN for Children, New York City on May 9 2002, Mandela exploded, “History will judge us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children”.

    From these remarks, Mandela aristocratically, foresightedly fixated his eyes on the future of the society considering children as the leaders of tomorrow. Unfortunately, the well-being of children particularly in African countries leaves much to be desired. The pertinent question precisely to leaders is; what future is in view vis-à-vis investment in children in the society outside their own?

    Article 28 of United Nations Convention on Child’s Rights (CRC) states: “All children have the right to a primary education, which should be free, and different forms of secondary education must be available to every child. Discipline in schools should respect children’s dignity. For children to benefit from education, schools must be run in an orderly way – without the use of violence. Any form of school discipline should take into account the child’s human dignity”.

    The CRC is the first legally-binding international agreement setting out the civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights of every child, regardless of their race, religion or abilities. The provisions and principles of the CRC guide UNICEF in its operations with 54 Articles and three Optional Protocols. Equally, the Convention spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere have: the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life.

    The Unitarian Universalist – United Nations Office (UU-UNO) through its “Every Child is Our Child” (ECOC) programme has supposedly recorded laudable feats in ensuring that vulnerable children reach their full potential by providing them with opportunities to attend school and receive all necessary medical attention.

    Splendidly, UNICEF–Nigeria has been in the lead of avid crusades on the protection of children’s rights in the country especially through public enlightenment programmes. Similarly, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Primary School Pupils’ Feeding Programme; a policy for promoting child-education is a booster. From investigations, the feeding-programme has remarkably, strategically increased the population of pupils in schools it is operative. Nonetheless, a lot still needs to be done. Government at all levels should make it a priority to provide standard learning environments alongside competent teachers and teaching materials.

    Conceivably, the Boko-Haram and other deadly sects in Nigeria may not have come into existence if past leaders did the needful by making child-education appealing in the society. Possibly, amongst the sects today could have been scores of eminent medical doctors, lawyers, scientists, professors and other professionals had the governments avidly promoted child-education accordingly.

     

    • Carl Umegboro, <umegborocarl @gmail.com>

  • Unfolding vicious scramble for Africa

    Even when many African countries attained flag independence at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, it was clear that the Western nations which had carved up the continent into colonial possessions, and had ruthlessly exploited it for several decades since the 19th Century, had no intentions whatever to loosen their political and economic vise grip. Though the United States was not a colonial power on the continent, it nonetheless had a special interest in preventing what it considered unwarranted ‘ideological contamination’ of the vast continent by the rival Soviet Union. For it, a communist foothold on the continent for whatever purpose, no matter how feeble or tentative, was judged a mortal geo-strategic threat to Western hegemony. This explains America’s diabolical involvement in the contrived Congo crisis of the early 1960s and the cold-blooded murder of Patrice Lumumba; its support for apartheid South Africa, leading to the arrest and imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and other nationalists; its orchestration of Nkrumah’s overthrow by the army in 1966, and other sinister involvements in enthroning and propping up some of Africa’s most sanguinary despots.

    By contrast, the much maligned Soviet Union on its own part developed more fraternal relationship with Africa, and supported liberation struggles and independence movements across the continent. Its interests and relationships, more for friendship, spreading its Communist ideology and consolidating global outreach as a superpower, were perhaps less opportunistic than its Western rivals.

    Unquestionably the most sinister Western power is France which, as conditionalities for independence, forced one-sided pacts down the throats of its former colonies in form of taxes and levies for infrastructure it built to facilitate colonial plunder. It controls their governments, their national economies and their security forces, keeps its military forces on their soil, overthrows governments and assassinates African leaders in order to keep these supposedly independent states in check. The list of its sordid crimes is long. Six decades after flag independence, France still controls their economies via the instrumentality of an imposed common currency (CFA franc), compulsorily holds their external reserves in the French treasury, from which it gives them loans at high interests rates, forces them to award all their juicy contracts exclusively to French-owned companies and corporations, ensures that most of their imports are from France. Any government that tries to deviate from this neo-colonial stranglehold is swiftly overthrown or has its head gruesomely assassinated. Togo’s first Prime Minister, Sylvannus Olympio, was assassinated in 1963, and others were to follow. Not even the end of the Cold War has altered France’s predilection for removing governments and leaders that would not toe the line.

    Africa is once again in the process of being sucked into the vortex of a much more sinister, pernicious and ruinous great power hegemonic contest, a vicious scramble for its resources, this time not by ideological adversaries but by multiple great powers in competition. This new scramble unfortunately promises to be more vicious and destructive because, unlike the European powers which did the first scramble in the 19th Century and ‘peacefully’ carved up the continent among themselves at a diplomatic conference in Berlin to stave off an intra-European war, today’s rival powers are diverse and spread across European, Asian and North American continents, and are fiercest international competitors. In the unfolding battle array are: the USA, which is currently perfecting an audacious Africa strategy supervised by John Bolton to confront and checkmate China’s spreading influence on the continent; the European Union, which had roped Africa into a series of unequal labyrinthine economic partnership agreements for decades; the UK, whose Prime Minister recently paid a whirlwind visit to former African colonies in search of a post-Brexit future; China, the putative global superpower now a major investor in Africa’s economy and infrastructure, and which built and donated a multi-million dollar headquarters secretariat building to the African Union in Addis Ababa; India, another rising Asian economic and technological powerhouse in desperate search for global outreach; Japan, until lately the world’s second largest economy now seeking new avenues of influence; and, of course, the resurgent Russia, successor to the defunct Soviet Union, which is trying to emerge from forced hibernation and seeking a new global role for itself.

    These are the old and the new competitors for the soul and resources of Africa, igniting a new “Scramble for Africa”, a more savage and pernicious contest than what took place in the 19th Century. This time around, the competition promises to be more vicious, and there is never going to be a “Berlin Conference” to moderate it. Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser, John Bolton, makes no pretence that America’s new ‘Africa strategy’ is for any mutual interest. No need for such diplomatic niceties. He asserted unapologetically that the US priority is to “put America first” and to counter what he termed China’s “predatory action” on the continent, in line with the dictates of US national security. China is thus the latest bad hombre, the new Soviet Union, to engage in a Cold War with. Trump has tried unsuccessfully to take on China in the South China Sea, which makes Africa a more suitable arena at which to challenge the new rival superpower. A savage contest which will vitiate Africa’s interests is about to become full blown.

    A unique aspect of the new scramble is that these foreign powers are seeking to treat Africa as a single bloc, rather than as sovereign states, which makes it less cumbersome and more rewarding for them. Herding Africans into a single bloc is generally convenient and less costly economically and politically. This is the mindset behind such recent multilateral gatherings as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), India-Africa Forum Summit, the US-Africa Leadership Summit hosted by President Barack Obama, a strategy which Russia is intending to replicate at its coming October 2019 Sochi Summit to which all the African plenipotentiaries would most likely be invited. Africa, underdeveloped but vastly endowed with gold, diamonds, uranium, hydrocarbons, cobalt and other strategic minerals, is the new arena for global contest.

    The fate that awaits Africa in this new scramble is most unflattering. The buccaneers are at daggers drawn; the stakes involved are too high, and for some of them it is a zero-sum contest they cannot afford to lose. With Donald Trump’s declared trade war with China, there is no ruling out Africa as a battleground. What shape will this new multilateral scramble take? Even if it will be peaceful, which I doubt, it is still a dangerous proposition which will cost Africa dearly. As usual, African governments that may wish to deviate and exercise independence may face the possibility of having domestic instabilities and socio-political upheavals deliberately fomented for them from outside. France and the US in particular have ignoble track records in destabilizing and overthrowing governments and assassinating African leaders. Will these new buccaneers peacefully carve up the continent into spheres of influence and zones of occupation or will it be a series of ruthless, multidimensional zero-sum contests from one country to another?

    Can Africa’s ruling elites, for whom regime survival is a principal preoccupation, be trusted to rescue Africa from this looming disaster, or are we simply condemned to be trapped in this vicious multidimensional competition? Time will tell.

  • When not to take ‘agbo’

    According to the World health organisation (WHO), traditional medicine is generally available, affordable, and commonly used in large parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

    WHO estimates that about 80 per cent of the population in developing countries still depends on traditional medicine for their Primary Healthcare (PHC) needs; however, this percentage may vary from country to country.

    In Nigeria, many people, especially in the South-West region, believe and rely on local herbs for medication.

    ‘Agbo’, the Yoruba name for herbal medicines, is a concoction prepared from a variety of herbs and; it is one of the most popular herbal preparations taken for various ailments, especially by the native Yoruba people.

    It has also seen a lot of patronage and acceptance by other tribes too; Agbo can be soaked in water, alcohol or even palmwine before one drink it.

    However, medical experts raise concerns on the after effects of taking Agbo, especially over a long period of time.

    One of such concerns is that it can damage the kidney and liver; also, there are concerns on its preparation which include the handling, dosage requirement for each ailment, shelf live and expiration date.

    Recently, at an event to commemorate the 2019 World Kidney Day on March 14, experts raised awareness on the importance of guarding against acts which can lead to kidney disease.

    The event which was organised by the Renal Dialysis Centre, Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos, saw experts also empahsising the need to reduce or even desist from consuming local concoctions, especially Agbo because of the possible resultant effects.

    Dr Chinedu Odum, a Nephrologist, said: “In this environment we talk about herbs and we hear many people say the take Agbo’’ or herbs.

    “They say the herbs clean their system but the truth is that this concoction people are taking, some of them have bad effect on the kidney. It can damage the kidney

    “It is a lot cheaper to prevent kidney damage because once you have kidney damage there is no going back; even those who are rich can’t maintain, afford or keep up with dialysis.

    “They can’t even maintain or afford to have kidney transplantation, not to talk of the masses who are not generally or financially equipped to take care of the disease.

    “So, we want to implore people to be aware of kidney disease but more importantly, to be more aware of the factors that increase the illness.’’

    However, Odum highlighted other causes of kidney disease to include high blood pressure which is the number one causes of kidney disease in Africa and of which many people don’t know that they have it.

    “Apart from blood pressure, diabetics and anyone who has long standing high blood sugar can come down with complications; one of the complications is kidney disease.

    “Also, bleaching; some of those creams have some components which can damage the kidney; they also have components that will increase the risk of diabetes and blood pressure.

    “The environment we live in is also very important; infection in this environment too contributes to kidney disease; so we have people who come down with frequent urinary tract infection.

    “If it is not taken care of, they can have chronic kidney infection which can lead to kidney disease and if that’s not channelled, we will be talking of dialysis,’’ the Nephrologist said.

    Dr John Okoh, Founder and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the RDC, confirms that these concoction of herbs have negative impact on vital organs of the body, especially the kidney.

    He urged Nigerians to be aware of the causes and risk factors of getting kidney disease.

    Dr Nkem Achor told NAN that one of the major concerns in consuming Agbo is that one cannot ascertain the dosage and expiration of the mixture, hence the tendency to either under-dose or over-dose.

    “People who take Agbo do not know when it becomes under dose or over dose and this can affect the multisystem functions of the kidney and liver, which are critical to the functioning of the body.

    “Also, it can lead to blood poisoning, gastrointestinal challenges, vomiting, diarrhea, anemia and even death, if mismanaged or not detected early.

    “However, one is not ruling out the efficacy of these herbs, but it is worthy to emphasise that if it is to be taken, it should be after thorough scientific research and approval.

    “Also, the preparation has to follow standard supervised procedure under hygienic circumstances with appropriate dosage requirements spelt out and expiration date written.

    “If these are not adhered to, people will continue to take Agbo indiscriminately; some may get lucky and be healed but a majority will come down with more debilitating and chronic situations which may be too late for hospitals to handle.’’

    Dr. Ebun Bamgbose of the Dialysis/Transplant Unit and Clinical Director of St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos, in an earlier interview said that most of the kidney failures, also known as renal failure or end stage renal disease, could be linked to indiscriminate use of these concoctions.

    This is because the herbs are mixed with all sorts, including local gin and there are toxic substances in the unprocessed materials and fermentation.

    A research was conducted by Akande IS, Adewoyin OA, Njoku UF and Awosika SO of the Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Nigeria.

    The research, “Biochemical Evaluation of Some Locally Prepared Herbal Remedies (Agbo) Currently on High Demand in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria’’, was published in the Journal of Drug Metabolism & Toxicology, affirmed the negative effects of Agbo on the body.

    It said: “Based on these findings, we conclude that though these preparations are potential sources of natural antioxidants, but majority of those being hawked on Lagos metropolis may be harmful to human health.

    “This is because many of the hawkers are likely to be quacks. There is also a need for standardisation of dosage regimens and close scrutiny of pedigree of the peddlers of these herbal remedies by appropriate government agencies,’’ the research prescribed.

    • Ihechu is of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

  • ‘Samsung has transformed Nigeria into construction hub’

    Korean shipbuilding giant, Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), has transformed Nigeria into a hub for fabrication and integration of Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) unit in Africa, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has said.

    Executive Secretary of NCDMB Simbi Wabote, who addressed reporters in Lagos, said SHI’s investment in Lagos is a major breakthrough in the implementation of local content in Nigeria.

    Wabote said the successful construction and local integration of the Egina FPSO in the company’s fabrication yard in Lagos was a key success story in the Nigerian content initiative.

    He said: “Under the local content implementation, we have seen a major breakthrough with the massive investment by Samsung in Lagos. The successful construction and integration of the FPSO for the Egina project is worthy of mention, and this is a key success story, and going forward, this singular asset will bring massive revenue to the country as we expect other African countries to take advantage of this facility than going outside the shores of the continent for FPSO construction.

    “Samsung has proven to have efficiently transformed the country into FPSO construction hub, and recall we were doing this in Korea before now.”

    The Korean giant set a new record on Nigerian content when it successful completed the FPSO unit, the largest floating oil platform in the world and also achieved its first oil in the facility.

  • Anxiety over rising illicit financial flows in Africa

    The rising menace of illicit financial flows, IFFs, otherwise known as ‘dirty money’ in the continent of Africa, was one of the hotly debated issues at a week-long conference in Kigali, Rwanda, where speakers after speakers attempted a prognosis of the crisis vis-à-vis its debilitating ills just as they sought a call to action aimed at strengthening the continent’s governance system to build domestic resource mobilisation, reports Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf just back from Kigali, Rwanda

    To any discerning mind, at the centre of Africa’s crisis of underdevelopment is the issue of poor governance process, poor resource mobilisation and corruption at various levels, which is why very many people are agreed that there is indeed a need for a paradigm shift in the way things are being done to get the continent’s growth and development back on an even keel.

    Little wonder, organisations like the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), which is at the forefront of advocacy, aimed addressing economic independence for the continent through domestic revenue mobilisation has continued to raise its voice above the din as far as Africa’s development is concerned.

    Interestingly, in keeping with its avowed aims and objectives ATAF in collaboration with the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) organised the second Media Engagement and Training of African journalists on tax-related matters.

    Over 60 selected media practitioners from across 22 African countries, including Nigeria converged in the City of Nyamata, Rwanda for a week-long workshop to discuss their role in addressing emerging tax issues that is affecting the continent’s development.

    IFFs pose clear and present dangers

    Dr Phenyo Butale, a member of Botswana Parliament, who set the tone for the discussion at the conference impressed on Africans, the need to manage her resources, noting that the problem of illicit financial flows (IFFs) and their costs for African economies has always been a development issue of major concern for African policy makers, more so now in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

    What IFFs is all about

    IFF refers to money illegally earned, transferred or used. It means any flow of money in violation of the laws in their origin or during their movement or use.

    IFF has diverse origins, such as laundering of proceeds of crime, abuse of power by politically exposed persons (PEPs), market or regulatory abuse by multinational corporations, trade record falsification and tax evasion.

    Others are the ability to shift profits from source countries to tax havens, thus denying the source country of tax revenue; weak international cooperation and information sharing, such as on beneficial ownership and tax records of multinationals, and opacity of records and information on what companies pay to governments in extractive and natural resource industry.

    Africa suffering from IFFs

    Citing the outcome of the Panama Papers, a giant leak of more than 11.5 million financial and legal records exposes a system that enables crime, corruption and wrongdoing, hidden by secretive offshore companies, Butale, currently, parliamentary finance committee member, which he has chaired on numerous occasions in pursuit of financial discipline, revealed that over 140 politicians in Africa were involved in IFFs across the world, fueling fears that the problem of IFFs was more of an insider-abuse and not entirely perpetrated by external forces.

    On how much has been lost through IFF, the erstwhile journalist said, the latest estimates from ECA indicate that, over the period of 2000 to 2015, Africa lost $80 billion yearly through illicit financial flows from commercial activities alone.

    This, he said, is in addition to around $27 billion estimated net annual losses through other channels. Taken together, this represents about $100 billion annually, which represents around four per cent of the continent’s GDP.

    He underscored the fact that the transfer of assets cannot be successful without the collaboration between the countries that they are transferred from and the international financial institutions in the countries that receive them.

    According to him, Africa cannot achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) if it continues to lose money that way. Rather, its economic development will continue to be sabotaged.

    He said there was the need enthrone transparency and accountability in governance, and to have the political will to tackle weak and compromised regulatory structures, poor governance structures and reckless tax incentives that encourage IFF.

    The most effective way to limit IFF is for both developed and African countries to increase financial transparency and be willing to enact and enforce policies that deter cross-border tax evasion, establishment of shell companies, strengthening of anti-money laundering laws and practices, and improving transparency of the operations of multi-national companies, the lawmaker further admonished.

    African countries, he stressed, must demand the highest standards of governance and disclosure from their governments. “As African countries, have the primary responsibility to fight corruption and the compromise of our regulatory institutions, so that the predicate condition that makes IFF possible is not easily available.”

    IFFs an ill wind that blows no good

    It is however instructive to note that a new analysis of illicit financial flows (IFFs) due to trade misinvoicing in 148 developing countries demonstrates that trade-related IFFs appear to be both significant and persistent features of developing country trade with advanced economies. As such, trade misinvoicing remains an obstacle to achieving sustainable and equitable growth in the developing world.

    This update, titled ‘Illicit Financial Flows to and from 148 Developing Countries: 2006-2015,’ is the latest in a series of Global Financial Integrity (GFI) reports which provide country-level estimates of the illicit flows of money into and out of 148 developing and emerging market nations as a result of their trade in goods with advanced economies.

    According to the GFI report, on average, trade misinvoicing is equivalent to 18 percent of total trade with advanced economies among all developing countries.

    In addition to updating the estimated IFFs GFI has presented in the past, this report widens the scope of its research and uses a more detailed database published by United Nations (UN) Comtrade along with updated measures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) data it has used previously. This report presents estimates of IFFs based on both data sets.

    While the Comtrade data set is more detailed, not all countries provide their trade data to the UN and therefore are not represented in this analysis. Many of the 44 nations that do not report trade transactions to the UN are small states; however a few non-reporting countries have substantial economies including Kenya, Nigeria and Venezuela. Trade-related illicit flows for these nations (and the other 41 countries not reporting to the UN) can be found in the report using the IMF’s Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS) data set.

    Thumbs up for ATAF

    Thankfully, he expressed delight in the fact that ATAF and Pan African Parliament have come together to collate a strategy that will help harmonise legislation in order to address some of the key issues affecting taxpayers within the continent.

    Speaking earlier, Aimable Kayigi Habiyambere, RRA Commissioner of Domestic Taxes, said, as a member of the ATAF Council, Rwanda shares with ATAF the common vision of building strong revenue authorities in Africa, as a key strategy towards domestic resource mobilisation through its many capacity-building initiatives, ATAF has helped several African tax administrations, including RRA, improve their revenue collection performance over the three years.

    Without a doubt, Habiyambere explained that there are unresolved issues such as digitalization that still need to be unpacked, which is why partnering with continental media remains central to our strategy to promote equitable development for the benefit of our citizens.

    According to him, taxation in Africa faces a number of challenges which has an impact on delivering to its agenda. “I believe that this engagement will inform you about the progress we are making–challenges and intervention required to close the gap in implementing tax policy,” Habiyambere said.

    He also named the challenges as tax evasion, non-voluntary compliance, public perception on taxes, taxing the digital economy which seems to be the future of the globe.

    Habiyambere said as a member of the media, “you have a critical role to play in helping us to tackle these challenges that we are facing–because you have the power to change the public perception and to increase voluntary compliance, reduce tax envision and help us handle challenges attached to the digital economy.”

    Echoing similar sentiment, Mary Baine, Director of ATAF Tax Programmes said, “The era of globalization is upon us, and we can no longer ignore the fact that Africa’s much-needed tax base is being eroded simply through unrecorded revenue. Our continent, now more than ever, needs all the resources if it is to promote its social-economic growth and the wellbeing of its populations. We see the media as partners in our journey to advance the discourse on tax and development.”

    Ms. Baine said revenue administration and ATAF attach seriousness to the engagement because the media has a role in educating the public and therefore, as partners, “we thank you and hope to continue this engagement in the near future.”

    She also used the occasion to recognise the African Development Bank (AfDB) as key partner in making sure that the engagement was successful.

    The public, according to her, rely on the media for information and it is “our opinion that this engagement will enable the media not only to unpack some of the more complicated issues that have to do with tax but, in turn, give them an opportunity to engage with practitioners about what is going on globally, including the fight against illicit financial flows, that will complement the work of tax administrations.

    She said the global development goal or the SDGs has tax as a key player or the revenue mobilization as a key contribution to the development of the world.

    According to Ms. Baine, the African development agenda, which is known as the agenda for 2063, clearly states that the collection of domestic revenue as a key component of the development agenda of Africa and, as such, it is important for everyone to play their role. We hope that this engagement will make clearer what the media can do to impact this.

    “We at ATAF consider that this relationship will help the beneficiaries (the public) to understand their tax obligations as well as their responsibilities and their rights, but also help the African agenda through advocacy,” Ms. Baines concluded.

    ATAF engagement, ATAF boss, said, is intended for participants, who are drawn from both public and private media institutions to delve into the conversation around how media can unpack the significance of tax issues, and how simplifying these matters can allow citizens to better understand their obligations and their contribution to development in their countries as well as their role in holding states accountable.

    Call to action

    One of the ways to address the challenge of IFFs, according to Butale is the need for the leading lights in the continent to galvanise action towards reviewing the laws currently operating across the countries within the various regions of the continent.

    As a corollary he hinted of by plans by the Pan African Parliament, to design legislation in that regard. Specifically, he said, as part of enhancing the role of the media in information gathering and dissemination, the Pan African Parliament, will wade into the lingering crisis that has bedeviled the passage of the freedom of information bill across countries of the continent.

    In the view of Ms Baine, another way to address the menace of IFFs is to ensure the enforcement of the Addis Tax Initiative, which, she said aligns with the aims and objective of the Sustainable Development Goals of ensuring domestic tax mobilisation for Africa as encapsulated in the AU Agenda 2063.

    Besides, the ATAF boss stressed the need to strengthen anti-money laundering instrument, tax information exchange, country-by-country reporting, and legislation on beneficial ownership amongst other measures within the continent.

  • Causes and perils of youth exclusion in Nigeria’s political landscape

    Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa as well as the 7th most populated country in the world. Youths in the country represent over 65 per cent of her entire population and most countries plan towards increasing their youth population to tap into their energy, innovativeness, vibrancy, resilience and ambition.

    Countries that invest in their youths witness economic growth and development. Unless deliberate efforts are made in Nigeria to harness the potentials in her youth population, young people will continue to be confronted with growing challenges or barriers to their participation in the country’s democracy.

    Apart from high levels of corruption in virtually all facets of the democratic institutions, some other notable barriers to youth leadership are economic, institutional, and cultural barriers.

    Economic barriers in my view relate to factors that limit or reduce the willingness of the Nigerian youth to participate in politics. Due to the highly monetized nature of democracy in Nigeria, spending huge sums of money to sway support for one’s political ambition has become unavoidable.

    For most young people in Nigeria, the harsh economic and living conditions in the country coupled with high unemployment rate makes their participation in democracy as candidates of a political party almost impossible.

    In addition, youths are deliberately excluded from playing key roles or taking up leadership positions in democratic institutions in the country. Despite creating positions for youth leaders in the country’s political parties, most of the time, individuals that occupy these positions fall outside the age demography of youths. Youths, according to UN are individuals whose ages are between 17 to 35 years.

    The fact that the national youth leaders of the two leading political parties in the country, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Rt. Hon Ude Okoye and that of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji. Ibrahim Dasuki, are 41 and 48 years old respectively, underscores a disturbing trend of youth exclusion in the country’s democratic institutions.

    Also, cultural barriers have had profound negative impact on the leadership selection process of political parties in the country. The cultural notion that young Nigerians must undergo many years of tutelage by older politicians before they could become qualitative leaders encourages youth exclusion from politics as candidates of political offices. The practice, in my view, is not only archaic but retrogressive.

    While the younger generation look up to my generation and those before us for answers or solutions to questions or problems related to the growing barriers to their future participation in our democracy, we seem not to have found one.

    Those in leadership positions today have shown little or no concern to the ugly development and the perils are imminent. When youths are not provided with requisite support mechanism that prepares them for leadership roles in the society, they easily derail. Some become willing tools for politicians during elections.

    Those that grow into touts and political tugs are given handouts during elections but turn to nuisance in the society immediately elections are over. It is believed that majority of youths that joined the Boko Haram sect in the North Eastern parts of Nigeria were used and dumped by politicians.

    However, when the elections were over and their patronage ceased, the youths turned over to Boko Haram for refuge. Similar trend of events has played out in Southern parts of Nigeria too. Kidnapping, armed robbery and militancy for large ransom are popular notorious activities youths in these geopolitical regions of the country indulge in.

    Conversely, Nigerian youths have demonstrated capacity in different walks of life. They can be tenacious during difficult periods and even in areas where young people from other parts of the world will not dare to go. Their show of resilience is second to none.

    When I look back at my experience in Aba, I recall growing up with hardworking men and women in their teens, who were constantly innovating and manufacturing products and services in midst of scarce resources. They would put up small manufacturing units at the back of their homes and produce leather shoes, belts and handbags.

    These products would later be branded “Made-in-Aba” and shipped out for higher earnings. On a broader scope, if young Nigerians are included in discussions that pertain to nation building, you can produce confident leaders that understand solutions to problems facing the problem.

    Thus, the government can solve some of these problems by establishing youth leadership development centers across the six geopolitical regions of the country as well as providing merit based scholarship to deserving Nigerians.

    The government must help young Nigerians understand and enshrine the spirit of patriotism towards an inclusive and better Nigeria, and sponsor an affirmative action plan that will give them their rightful place in decision making process at local, national and regional levels.

    Following the situation of things in the country and the low chances of increasing youth leadership, going forward, I will urge Nigerian youths to shun any attempts to use them for election thuggery. The political parties and other democratic institutions should reserve over 40 per cent of their party executive positions at various levels to the youths.

    The same affirmation for youth leadership should be used to issue political appointments in the country. Again, youths exposed to leadership roles early in their career will end up as future and better administrators of our limited resources. Nigerian youths are currently in the fringes of our society and as a result, concerted efforts should be made to draw them into the center of government.

    Emphasis on education, leadership trainings and empowerment should be put on the front burner as an action item in the major political parties. If we continue to ignore them, the consequences might be irreversible.

    Onyeizu, a former APC Senatorial Aspirant and Sloan Fellow of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is an expert in Youth Empowerment and Governance.