Hiiraan Online
Friday October 30, 2015
NEW DELHI (HOL) – Somalia’s president has
called for African countries to move away from the dependence of development
aid by improving productivity, harness and demand innovation in the service of
prosperity.
Speaking at the India-Africa Forum Summit
in New Delhi Thursday, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud who praised India’s assistance
towards reducing poverty in Africa at length said that Africa can change its
status by using education to improve the livelihood of its people.
“We must stop taking, and start creating.”
Mr. Mohamud said during his speech at the summit.
Despite challenges in the Sub Saharan
Africa, many African countries have stepped away from aid dependency, thanks to
their private sectors’ improvements and economic growth boosted by domestically
mobilized resources.
Mozambique and Liberia make the main
example as the two countries have doubled their tax revenues from 6% to 20% in
the past few years.
Kenya also makes a perfect illustration of
the new aid reality, as the East African country budget is roughly US$ 12
billion, about 30 percent of the country’s economy. This share is one of the
highest in Africa, making the state the biggest player in the economy,
according to the World Bank.
According to development experts, such
efforts would make donors small players in the continent which is largely dependent
on a foreign aid.
Despite the progress and growing economy
--- the continent remains the poorest on the planet as many countries including
Somalia are still dependent on a development aid.
The horn of Africa nation has been without
functioning government since 1991 after warlords overthrew the central
government.
With the help of a strong 21000 AU force,
the country has a new central government which is struggling to contain a
deadly insurgency by the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabab which also carried out
multiple deadly attacks across the continent.