Humanitarian aid to Africa has become a fruitless effort as regular offerings go towards feeding the starving population without lasting results. But prominent international groups seem blind to its futility.
In January, the European Union made a 65.5 million euro contribution to “address the unprecedented needs caused by global effects” in East and Central Africa. Last November, the United Nations established the Climate Change Loss and Damage Fund, requiring rich nations to pay to compensate for the impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations. This comes at a time when some economists are calling to halt humanitarian assistance to Africa, instead demanding an overhaul of economic policies for the countries. In order to establish sustainable economic prosperity in African nations, foreign countries must stop sending aid. The best way to help African populations is to stop financially coddling their economies, forcing them to rebuild their economic capacity on their own.
For decades, foreign nations have sent trillions of dollars to African countries in the form of private donations, government agency grants, and international loans. Between 2015 and 2020 alone, Sub-Saharan African countries received $308.35 billion in donations. As of 2021, African countries’ external debt totalled $644.9 billion, and 22 of these countries were at risk of, or facing debt distress.
Africa remains the poorest continent in the world. Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian-born economist and author, has argued that over $1 trillion in development-related aid sent to Africa over the past 50 years has failed to help the recipients out of poverty. “In fact, across the continent,” she claimed, “the recipients of this aid are not better off as a result of it but worse — much worse.”
Aid Addiction
While most African leaders look to developed nations for humanitarian assistance, these ties keep the continent dependent by allowing its national governments to avoid economic responsibility. In fact, these donations have been instrumental in perpetuating poor economic policies, further impoverishing the people.
Countries like Nigeria use this easy money to subsidize products and businesses, effectively funneling money and production out of their economy. To fund the country’s 2023 budget, the Nigerian government looked forward to borrowing 11 trillion naira ($24.7 billion) from local and international sources, of which 3.36 trillion naira is earmarked to fund the petroleum subsidy. This breaks down to a subsidy of 283 naira per liter, causing the country’s petrol to be sold at 167 naira per liter, or $0.30 — a lower price than the $0.85 per liter sold in the United States. Such low prices allow smugglers to buy it cheaply and export it to neighboring countries for resale, thus diverting the oil subsidy into private and foreign pockets.
Such loans in Nigeria have created a debt trap, as the government used 80.6% of its 2022 revenue for debt servicing. This has pushed the government to increase and widen its tax net and introduce regulations to fatten its revenue source. But most of these policies have dire consequences: Over-taxation kills businesses and chases investments out of the country.
In the last ten years alone, 11 multinational companies have either left the country or signaled their strong intention to leave, with each company taking as many as 20,000 potential jobs with them. According to the National Investment Promotion Commission, the local and foreign companies withdrew 69.3% of the investment projects in Nigeria between the first quarters of 2021 and 2022.
With unemployment on the rise and global inflation soaring, the number of Nigerians plunged into poverty reached a record-breaking 133 million as of November 2022, representing 63% of the population, up from 42.8% in 2010. Here’s a problem over $906 million transported to the country as foreign aid has been unable to solve.
This problem continues across the African continent. Foreign aid perpetuates governments’ overspending and steals the incentive to explore local solutions.
Corruption
While much of foreign aid funds go towards economic bailouts, more often countries send aid to answer environmental crises on the continent. But the catastrophes endemic to Africa have multidimensional causes. Climate change has undeniably aggravated things, but the artificial consequences of pollution on preserved areas like wetlands cause uncontrollable floods during rainy seasons. Every year, the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency releases a flood outlook to warn communities susceptible to disasters. In its 2022 report, it predicted that 233 of the 774 local governments in the country fell within the highly probable flood risk area.
Despite this warning, state governments in these areas have taken no responsibility, and they have a long history of mismanaging ecological funds. Last year, after intense floods claimed over 500 lives and displaced up to 1.4 million people in the country, human rights activists and anti-corruption groups demanded a probe into the more than $2.2 billion in Ecological Funds released in the past decades. Nobody has been investigated.
Africa needs policy overhaul, not bailouts
To mitigate the impact of climate change, African governments need to lift their citizens out of poverty. Foreign governments can only help in this by allowing these countries to improve their economic policies and attract both domestic and foreign investors.
Foreign nations need to stop their guilt-driven humanitarian crusade in Africa. Fruitless aid has only ever allowed selfish politicians to practice corruption and regressive economic policies that have further impoverished African nations.
Abdullah Tijani is a contributor at Young Voices and journalist in Nigeria. The views expressed are the author's own.
