Assets are to money what a chicken is to eggs, that is, what generates them. In Africa, rather than paying attention to the chicken, we are obsessed with the eggs it lays. We pursue and aim for the eggs, leaving it to outsiders to own the chickens while we have the possibility of having chickens even if it requires more investment, time and ingenuity.
This allegory finished, let us deplore that the tragedy of our economies is that they are cruelly lacking in assets, that is to say that our economies lack systems, organizations and human skills that generate money and it is the non-Africans, the foreigners of the continent who come to set up these systems with the new tendency that the Africans themselves contribute their savings to the establishment of the said systems to end up being satisfied with only the portion congruent leaving the lion's share to non-Africans.
I present to you here a glaring case which underlines the above:
It is the end of July 2023, only 2 months ago, the Anglo-Canadian mining company, Endeavor Mining was selected to exploit the Lafigué gold mine in Ivory Coast and to set up the Société des Mines de Lafigué, the Anglo-Canadians are launching a syndicated financing offer in Ivory Coast for a round of 100 billion CFA francs or 150 million US dollars out of the 450% of the capital of the company to be created.
The offer quickly found interest among 5 commercial banks in Abidjan which formed a loan syndicate headed by Ecobank Ivory Coast to find the 100 billion CFA francs that Canadians need.
Once the gold mining company is set up, it is stipulated that Endeavor Mining controls 80% of the shares and the State of Ivory Coast 20%.
Clearly, Ivory Coast called on foreigners to exploit a resource at home, these foreigners do not have all the money they need to do the work and it is still the Ivorian banks that they have asked to support them.
#What would Ivory Coast have missed from exploiting its gold on its own to the extent that its banks are capable of coming together to lend money to foreigners?
- All they need is machines and competent men.
* When we know that machines can be bought or rented and even manufactured on site on a long-term basis, there is only a lack of men who know how to do this work.
As a result, there is a shortage of competent personnel, gold mining engineers and skilled workers.
It is therefore men, educated and trained Africans who will ensure that from 20% control, Ivory Coast will find itself at 100% and this is valid everywhere in Africa.
Human competence is essential to building a respected and respectable Africa.
By Constant Sinzogan
