Commentary
By Gibril Koroma,
Editor/Publisher,
The Patriotic Vanguard.
Osman Bangura
I would like to first comment briefly on a recent open letter to president Ernest Koroma from a Calgary(Western Canada)based Sierra Leonean, Osman Bangura. In his letter, which was widely read and commented on by our readers, Osman(who is incidentally the younger brother of PMDC spokesman and National Coordinator of the Attitudinal and Behavioural Change office, Mohamed Bangura) invited the president to come to Canada and address and advise some younger members of the Sierra Leonean community who he said are involved in anti-social activities.
The said letter was praised by some people while others castigated it. I wish to make certain things clear because I noticed some misunderstanding about Sierra Leoneans in Canada and how the system works here. Here is what I have to say on this issue:
1. Indeed, some Sierra Leoneans in Canada are involved in some criminal activities just like other inhabitants in this great country. There are bad eggs in all the communities here and Sierra Leoneans are no exception. We should also note that not everybody with a Sierra Leonean passport is a Sierra Leonean. There are people out there with Sierra Leonean pasports who are not Sierra Leoneans.This is something the immigration authorities in Freetown and the Sierra Leone embassy in Washington(which is also responsible for Canada) should look into especially when passports are being renewed. So Osman’s letter is in place.
2. The Sierra Leone embassy in Washington has to appoint consuls here in Canada since I know the ambassador does not have the resources to frequently visit this country(I had made this point before). Honorary consuls are normally volunteers with little or no cost to the home government. Sierra Leoneans here need somebody or some people to make them feel their government cares for them. There should at least be somebody here to alert the embassy or State House in Freetown when a Sierra Leonean is arrested or is in serious trouble or has passed away. At least the embassy should know.
2. Again, I know the embassy in Washington already has a lot on its plate just dealing with Sierra Leoneans in the United States; which makes it all the more crucial to have consuls here.
3. The majority of Sierra Leoneans here are highly educated and successful in what they do. There is a large pool of professionals in various fields like nursing,academia, journalism, engineering, law, computer science, business, accountancy and so on, ready and willing to help and contribute to the development of their country of origin(Sierra Leone) and their adopted country(Canada). This is something the government of Sierra Leone and other stakeholders should take note of.
DENI
I have recently been appointed National Coordinator for Canada for the DENI initiative. I consider that a singular honour and promise to discharge my duties in an excellent and stellar fashion, as usual.
I already have a plan of action and the first thing I am going to do is to appoint DENI representatives in all the major cities in Canada and hold town meetings in these cities later. We shall also have frequent tele-conferences to involve interested Sierra Leoneans in this country. I therefore encourage all Sierra Leoneans in Canada to contact me for details on DENI either by phone(604-308-6087) or by email(gkgkoroma@gmail.com). For those who may not know about DENI here is the DENI concept paper sent to me for dissemination:
Direct Expatriate Nationals Investment (DENI)
African context:
The Direct Expatriate Nationals Investment (DENI) proposal was originally designed as a Debt Relief and Poverty Reduction program but has since morphed into Enhanced DENI as an External Resource Mobilization and Poverty Reduction Program for countries that have received massive debt cancellation from the HIPC Program, mostly in Africa. With the changing international politics (thanks to the G8 Summit 2005 in the UK), debt can be cancelled with the stroke of the pen, but poverty cannot be cancelled with the stroke of the pen. Hence, the enduring need for DENI as a poverty reduction program.
We, the African Diaspora, constitute the greatest Africa’s offshore asset and the most indispensable catalyst in the accelerated development of our home countries because we have a permanent vested interest in the welfare of our people. The ever-growing African Diaspora is poised for this unprecedented role by virtue of our remittances which are already a significant and growing portion of the GNP of our countries. The sheer magnitude of remittances to Africa is staggering yet Africans have nothing visible and collectively owned to show for it. This phenomenon is apparent in virtually all African countries - a lot of money pouring in from the Diaspora but nothing monumental to show for it. The aggregate volume of remittances to Africa now exceeds all forms of foreign aid combined. And there is more where that comes from. Thus, we as Africans both at home and abroad are only limited by our creativity in terms of how best to exploit this external “gold-mine” of private funds for the common good. DENI is one such example of creativity that Africans in the Diaspora have embraced wholeheartedly.
What is DENI all about?
The millions of expatriate Africans living and working abroad today are Africa’s most precious and under-utilized resource. These individuals are not only earning money abroad and sending some of it back home to their families, but much more importantly they also represent an incredible pool of human resources in expertise, knowledge, education, experience, entrepreneurship and enthusiasm that can be deployed creatively on a host of development fronts at home. We, in the Diaspora have done two things, namely: we have sent money home primarily for consumption (to reduce poverty) and we (those of us who are financially able) have also sent extra money home to micro-finance SMEs for our relatives as well as contribute to all kinds of non-profit community development projects in our villages. We are now looking to go to the next logical step for remittances - investing in large-scale enterprises starting with privatization of our country’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs). DENI is all about creating millions of new owners of income-generating assets as opposed to a handful of millionaires. This is good for the country because widespread ownership of assets creates a robust economy that is good for everybody - job seeker as well as investor. That is the thrust of DENI with its most outstanding attribute as a people-driven initiative, which is immensely empowering. This is truly visionary. DENI is an African people’s solution for poverty reduction. We now have an emerging website that is entirely devoted to this initiative for all Africa at www.DeniAfrica.com on which we will be showcasing DENI developments in any African country that launches it.
The ingenuity of DENI
In a nutshell, the ingenuity of DENI is to mobilize expatriate Africans (living and working in the West) to pool their remittances country-by-country to purchase outright (or buy into), at the very least, one of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in their own countries that are slated for privatization, resulting in widespread ownership of these assets by the country’s own nationals and the reinvestment of their dividend earnings ploughed back into the economy, leading to massive economic stimulation, accelerated growth and poverty reduction. The DENI proposal has great merit in its universality and simplicity. The goal of the DENI, in the first round, is to raise as much as $1 billion dollars for the government that is not a loan and is not a grant. And if both sides - the government and the people - are happy with the success of the first round, we will arrange to do it again and again. In this initiative, there will be no strings attached, no humiliating conditionalities and no donor interference. The program will be totally owned by the African governments and their very own nationals at home and abroad. All this in exchange for asset shares in privatized state-owned enterprises (SOEs) - thus keeping the family jewels in the family, instead of selling them to foreigners - exactly the way Africans want it, to avoid foreign dominance of our economies. That is the ingenuity of *DENI.* Many African governments are determined to become “middle-income” countries by 2015 (Vision 2020, Vision 2030 as they say). To achieve this ambitious goal, they must seek creative ways to double (or triple) the “middle class” populations rapidly. DENI will effectively and efficiently help them achieve this worthy goal.
DENI is based on 5 premises
The ultimate aim of DENI is to stimulate the African economies and create a Culture of Ownership to replace a culture of dependency on foreign aid. The appeal of the DENI model is based on 5 premises - all of them valid and ever so true.
First: that Africans in the Diaspora have tremendous faith in the remittance lifeline because of our extended family structure. We have sent money home when the international community abandoned some of our countries to their own devices; we have sent money home in the middle of civil wars, we have sent money home where there is no bank, we have sent money home even where there is no government as in the case of Somalia. In 2005, Relief Agencies working in Somalia spent $100 million but estimated that $850 million worth of remittances were sent in by Somalis abroad. Such is the audacity of the African Diaspora in their determination to help their loved ones.
Second: that we, in the Diaspora have done two things, namely: we have sent money home primarily for consumption (to reduce poverty) and we (those of us who are financially able) have also sent extra money home to micro-finance SMEs for our relatives. We are now looking to go to the next logical step for remittances - investing in large-scale enterprises starting with privatization of our country’s State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
Third: that remittances from the Diaspora stimulate our economies by increasing currency flow and consumer purchasing power. These are literally life saving injections, but we can’t help everybody individually in the whole country. If we could, we would, but that is not possible. Instead, when we help our countries economically through an ingenious program such as DENI and the economies improve, the positive effects spill over to EVERYBODY IN THE COUNTRY. The poverty reduction implications are obvious.
Fourth: that DENI represents a major frontline (but as yet untapped) source of self-help development finance. This is to replace the culture of dependency on foreign aid with a Culture of Ownership in home-grown publicly traded companies. This is not about the discredited African Socialism of the 60s or some communist ideology. Ownership has always been there in our culture long before Western civilization came to our shores. We are simply re-asserting what is familiar to us. Our ancestors owned property so recreating a culture of ownership to replace a culture of dependency on aid hand-outs is not foreign to Africa.
Fifth: that Government officials who frequently travel abroad and interact with Africans living and working in foreign lands have noted that most Africans in the Diaspora have a longing to be part of some larger “cause” to relate to on equal terms of engagement for the good of their home countries. DENI provides them with that larger “cause” to belong to on an equal footing with no eligibility restrictions except being an African national of an African country. DENI operates above ethnic lines - it is all-inclusive. This is perfectly consistent with the stated public policy of our governments to bring people from different backgrounds and walks of life together to live in peace and harmony with one another and enhance the welfare of each other.
The Design of DENI:
From inception, DENI was designed to be managed by African nationals themselves, meaning, Ghanaians for the DENI Program for Ghana, Malians for the DENI Program for Mali, Ugandans for the DENI Program for Uganda, and so on down the line country-by-country until we get to Zimbabweans for the DENI Program for Zimbabwe. The model can and will be replicated across the continent. For each cooperating country, capable nationals will be identified and hired as Consultants to manage their country’s DENI Program. There is a compelling reason why DENI was designed this way. When African nationals are allowed to work on their country’s projects, that hands-on experience builds their capacity and expertise for future projects. This is the capacity building component of DENI. The first order of business, then, begins with sending a DENI Mission of at least four competent Consultants selected from the country’s own nationals in Diaspora to go to the country’s capital to execute generic Terms of Reference (TOR) culminating into the country-specific Project Implementation Program.
This mission will be at no cost to the government. Several international development agencies are ready to fund such a mission if the government takes ownership of the project and submits a formal request. Another design feature of Enhanced DENI is the full participation of the Africans at home. But why allow Africans at home to participate in DENI which is primarily a Diaspora-driven initiative? It is because, we in the Diaspora, don’t want to be perceived as self-serving. To avoid unnecessary criticism from the media and local politicians (MPs at home), we will allow Africans at home who want to and are financially able to participate in DENI, to do so on exactly the same terms as Africans in the Diaspora. We are in this together. After all, what we are addressing here is poverty reduction in the whole country. And poverty is not just among the extended families of the Africans in the Diaspora; poverty is also among the families who have no one in the Diaspora to send them remittances.
Which way- DENI way or IPO way?
DENI was designed to create a culture of mass ownership of the country’s resources leading to mass poverty reduction. Millions of Africans have the potential to benefit from DENI in terms of personal prosperity and economic freedom. The effect of doing it the DENI way is we end up with a whole new entrepreneurial class of ordinary folks entering that elite group of people known as “stock-owners.” What this does is that it helps expand the circle of opportunity and creates a culture of ownership to replace a culture of dependency on foreign aid. Doing it the usual way, that is, divesting government ownership in an SOE by way of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to the African marketplace, you end up with the usual suspects (institutional investors, mutual funds, equity funds, insurance companies, pension funds, venture capitalists, banks, etc.) buying up all the assets in massive quantities in a hurry for purely speculative purposes - buying low and selling high later. Or worse, selling whole enterprises to foreigners like the Chinese, South Africans, Koreans, Malaysians and the like. That does absolutely nothing for poverty reduction in the country. The same circle of people end up getting richer and richer while everybody else is either stagnating or getting poorer.
Yet, from the revenue standpoint, the government ends up getting the same amount of money, no less, whether it takes the DENI way or the IPO way. So, the government has a critical choice to make in privatizing its SOEs: getting the same amount of money with a massive impact on poverty reduction (the DENI way) or getting the same amount of money with no impact at all on poverty reduction (the IPO way). When the rich get richer, poverty is not impacted. But when new people get richer, the “middle class” expands and poverty contracts. It should be a matter of public policy to share opportunities and spread wealth around for a healthy economy. People will understand that an opportunity offered and not taken is better than an opportunity denied.
If at the end of the day, Africa is as beautiful as God meant it to be but its endowed wealth has slipped from the hands of Africans into the hands of foreigners, this continent will have a lot explaining to do to posterity. How come, what was given to us by the Almighty’s providence, we gave it away to somebody else? The next generation will ask: how come we live on our ancestral continent but we own nothing and foreigners own everything? Who will answer? We are at a tipping point. If (we) the current generation fails Africa by the way we mishandle Africa’s vast resources by auctioning them to the highest bidder in this destabilizing era of globalization, we might be doomed forever. We cannot afford to fail our posterity the way our dawn-of-independence generation has failed us. We are determined to succeed where others have failed.
Creation of Wealth:
By promoting a Culture of Ownership - whereby ordinary Africans own stocks and shares traded on the Stock Exchange (SE) of their country - immense wealth can be created. Some astute Africans have become millionaires on the SE operated in their countries. But this is not unique to Africa. Ordinary citizens in the West have created tremendous wealth for themselves through this process. The second richest man in the world (an American, Warren Buffet) never founded or owned a company - only shares in various companies publicly traded on the stock exchange. The richest man is, of course, Bill Gates who founded Microsoft Corporation. As of today, 60% of American households own shares on Stock Exchanges as compared to less than 2% of African households. The DENI investor’s existing asset market exit strategy is going to be the SE. Every country ought to have one. The DENI project will do several things at once (to name just two): Firstly: The DENI program will sensitize Africans about the value of owning stocks and shares in home-grown publicly owned companies because very few of our people at home and abroad understand them as a source of creating wealth. Secondly: DENI will encourage Africans to invest in stocks and shares for themselves and also for their relatives at home as gifts to them. In most African countries the return on investment averages 20-30% a year. There is nowhere else in the world where this is happening, not even in booming China. Africa is clearly poised for tremendous growth if we can agree to do the right thing for the common good.
This pithy **Executive Summary** was prepared by:
Frederick W. Kwoba
Executive Director
US-Africa Business Council, Boston, USA
Email: frederickkwoba@hotmail.com
Website: www.DeniAfrica.com
Photo: PV editor/publisher Gibril Koroma(left) and a friend.
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