The Africa Report — July-August 2017

BYPATRICK SMITH

Africa’s Marshall

Plan for the West

In a time of hyper-national-

ism, the wall-builders might see

it as churlish to throw a few facts

and figures into the argument

• but here goes anyway. Our Front-
  line feature on the growing power
  of Africa’s diaspora gets to the nub
  of the continent’s economic and
  cultural exchange with the West.
  Let’s start with the quantifi-
  able: financial flows. Africa’s
  central banks hold more than
  $600bn of their foreign reserves
  in Western economies. Similarly,
  African pension funds hold more
  than $700bn and invest most of it
  in Western capital markets.
  There are the illicit flows too,
  tracked by a panel of the UN’s
  Economic Commission for Africa.
  Its latest report reckons that Afri-
  ca is losing more than $80bn per
  year from deliberate trade mis-
  pricing, corporate tax evasion and
  a potpourri of financial-service
  rackets. Most of that cash ends
  up in Western banks.
  And the inflows? Enter Afri-
  ca’s diaspora to the tune of more
  than $60bn a year in remittances
  through official channels. Unoffi-
  cial transfers add at least another
  $60bn. Altogether, remittances
  were over twice foreign aid levels.
  Remittances transfer money for
  school and medical fees, building
  houses and starting up enterpris-
  es. Yet London’s Overseas Devel-
  opment Institute has identified a
  “super tax” on those remittances.
  People paid an average of 12.3% to
  send $200 to an African country,
  compared with a global average of
  7.8%. Sparse competition and high
  commissions are part of the prob-
  lem, but African-owned transfer
  companies, such as WorldRemit,
  are now cutting costs.
  Education and health servic-
  es in the West are increasingly

recruiting African professionals.

Britain’s Institute of Public Policy

and Research found that Uganda

spent more than $2bn on training

doctors who then went to the

West. Kenya’s Calestous Juma,

professor of international devel-

opment at Harvard University,

argues for the value of cultural

and intellectual exchange over

worries about a brain drain.

Ghana takes a pragmatic view:

“We see education as an export

industry,” a presidential adviser

says. “We are rapidly

expanding the train-

ing of health workers

knowing there is high

demand for them in

Europe, but also to im-

prove local services.”

Africans have now

surpassed their Asian

counterparts in Britain

and the US as the most

educated migrant

group (the highest

percentage of post-

graduates). Some educational

psychologists say a stronger fam-

ily work ethic helps. After Tiger

Moms, Lion Mums and Dads?

As the data on Africa’s diaspora

explains its contribution to both

host countries and the mother

continent, there are some philo-

sophical questions. Just as the

overseas Chinese helped kick-

start the Middle Kingdom’s spec-

tacular growth, Africa’s diaspora

is playing a similar role. Amin

Maalouf, author of the elegiacLeo

Africanus, speaks compellingly

of the importance of mutual re-

spect as we juggle our multiple

identities – personal, religious,

ethnic and national. In that re-

gard, Africa’s diaspora can offer

the world a master class.

Africa’s

diaspora

can offer

the world

a master

class

in juggling

identities

A Jeune Afrique Media Group publication

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THE AFRICA REPORT•N° 92•JULY-AUGUST 2017