By: Kandjengo kaMkwaanyoka
With all due respect to the educated and economic intellectuals in our country and continent, there is a significant lack of audacity and courage among those who sit at the tables of economic decision-making.
Moreover, there is a troubling level of naivety among those we trust as our economic architects.
Africa remains the least developed economically, less innovative, and has been relegated to a supplier of raw materials for the rest of the world.
More sadly, the continent is inundated with guns and weapons, leading to internal conflicts that distract from the management and development of our resources.
The naivety lies in the belief held by our economic intellectuals that so-called investors from across the ocean have the best intentions for Namibia or the continent at large, forgetting the law of rationality – that individuals will act in their own best interests, often with little regard for others.
This economic naivety is concealed under the guise of foreign direct investment and adherence to international economic practices.
Namibia, with its historical past of segregation, looting, disempowerment, and oppression, cannot be rebuilt using foreign direct investment or by following global practices.
The social dynamics and the deep-seated economic pain and disempowerment are too profound to be corrected by relinquishing ownership of our resources in the name of foreign direct investment.
Most of the land and other riches taken during colonial times were never returned, nor were there corrective policies to restore these resources to their prior owners.
Now, the economically disadvantaged must compete with those funded by their own governments and capital markets for the remaining resources. This is naivety of the highest order.
As resource owners lose their remaining land in the name of foreign direct investment, they are promised jobs in exchange.
It is naive to believe that after the losses and disempowerment caused by centuries of colonialism and looting, we should again give away ownership of our resources for jobs and petty cash/taxes.
Investment facilitators are mesmerised by billions of foreign capital and, in their educated minds, think they are building an economy by allowing foreign capital to buy the remaining resources and obtain licences for all.
Instead of unlocking domestic capital, policymakers and investment facilitators run outside and facilitate the sales of what is left.
I strongly disagree with this approach of economic building that dishes out Namibia and African resources to the highest bidder in exchange for employment and petty cash (taxes).
This is not sustainable. In the future, we will be penalised for trespassing on our old grazing areas sold or licensed to some distant investor.
Every corner and piece of Namibia will be in the hands of someone from afar, just because they have billions in capital and promise to employ a handful of people.
We boast about facilitating billions of dollars in foreign direct investment without accounting for what the country has lost.
The question now is: where is the economic audacity among the learned and economically aware individuals entrusted with our economic rebuilding task?
We need the audacity to negotiate better and devise new approaches to economic building that put Namibia and Africa at the centre of policies.
Can we develop the audacity to ignore the opinions of those outside the continent with their printed capital and media influence, and instead construct our path, doing what is necessary for ourselves?
We need to examine how domestic capital is distributed and accessed, and change it so that Namibians with good solutions and entrepreneurial concepts can access local capital and maintain ownership of their resources.
If investment facilitators and policymakers do not develop the audacity to adopt a different approach, we will continue celebrating billions of dollars in foreign investment while losing farmland, ocean rights, and more.
Economic and policy discussions in Namibia and the rest of Africa need a new approach and mindset – one embedded in the ideology of building and utilising resources for Namibia and the rest of the continent.
Celebrating an investment that gives away a farm and ocean rights for 99 years to an outsider in exchange for 100 jobs is economic naivety and a lack of economic audacity.
If we aspire to restructure our economy to be more inclusive and maximise our resources, we must be bold, selfish, and dismiss the existing theories of economic building. Otherwise, we will drown in our economic naivety and lose everything.
NB: Kandjengo hails from Okwalondo, with a deep interest in African economic matters and financing. He writes in his personal capacity, drawing on his daily exposure, reading, and the economic realities in various corners of Namibia. He can be reached by email at gerastus16@gmail.com.
