Poor natural resource management haunts Africa

Lazarus Sauti

The continent of Africa loses from poor management of raw possessions as most countries lack adequate strategies as well as focus on the administration of natural resources.

Extractive industry researcher, Solomon Mungure, says Africa lacks prudence in natural resources management which makes it easy for foreign mining companies to plunder its resources.

Addressing a provincial Alternative Mining Indaba organised by Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (Zela) and its partners in Mutare, Zimbabwe recently, Mungure said companies such as South Africa-based De Beers – which has been accused of shipping out diamonds in Marange by the government of Zimbabwe under the guise of prospecting – was just one of many companies that “were making profits from understanding the country’s ignorance.”

“(Cecil John) Rhodes’ businesses grew from creating companies…which stole our natural resources.

“They did not loot only here, but even in Angola and Sierra Leone.

“They have been making their profits from understanding and exploiting our ignorance,” he said.

Mungure, however, believes the time is now for Africans to force foreign business enterprises to adopt ethical conduct and not continue with the “code of colonialists”.

“Business is never neat…business ethics in the continent need to be refocused so that Africans can benefit from their resources,” he affirmed.

Dr Carlos Lopes, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, says to ensure that Africa’s natural resources effectively serve Africans and transform their economies, the continent must invest in infrastructure, research as well as human development, through conditionality for local content.

“Africa urgently needs investment in hard and soft infrastructure, research and human capital as well as investment to maintain and manage these natural resources well: investment to unleash their huge economic and development potential for the benefit of people in Africa today and for the generations to come,” he said.

The development economist insists that Africa’s resources sectors must become socially and environmentally accountable, implying increased public participation, “so that a broader share of citizens contribute to policy and benefits from economic and social returns in the natural resources sector, including gainful employment.”

Dr Lopes added: “Africa must use its natural resources as a springboard for diversification and eventual industrialisation; this would require policies that deliberately encourage innovation and that establish local content goals.

“It would require ensuring backward and forward linkages to promote internally articulated economies and regional value chains.”

Supporting Dr Lopes, the African Development Bank urges policy decision makers in Africa to create enabling environments – also including plans, strategies, policies and regulations – to attract, retain and increase the level of investments in resources sectors.

The AfDB also encouraged policy makers in Africa to continuously target and build human as well as institutional capacities, to create knowledge-based and competitive natural resources sector so as to strengthen the continent’s bargaining power to negotiate better contracts.  

The multilateral institution also asserts that to shift from being ‘resource-cursed’ to ‘resource-blessed’, the continent of Africa needs to promote responsible investment for broad-based growth as well as strengthen governance for enhanced transparency and accountability.

Was it not Dr Mohamed ‘Mo’ Ibrahim, a Sudanese-British mobile communications entrepreneur and billionaire, who said that “without good, effective governance, Africa’s present strong economic momentum will not be sustained, the rewards will be wasted and tension will increase?”

True to Ibrahim’s assertion, strong governance cannot only help African countries maintain peace and ensure that resource rents are not captured by vested interests or misappropriated, but ensures governments are accountable and transparent in natural resource allocations.

To enhance governance in natural resource management, January Makamba, Tanzanian Deputy Minister of Communication, Science and Technology, encourages governments to see themselves as custodians – and not the owners – of natural resources.

This, Makamba adds, will help Africa to manage resources responsibly and transparently on behalf of current as well as future generations.

He also believes natural resource management is multi-sectoral, encompassing many sectors hence the need for all-stakeholder co-operation.

“Natural resource management is multi-sectoral. Accordingly, it is important for government sectors in Africa to involve the public in all dialogue over natural resources as they are intended benefactors.

“Public dialogue upholds and supports these principles by allowing the intended benefactors to air their concerns and share their views.”

Equally important is also the role of civil society in acting as watchdogs over how leaders manage or make use of natural resources for national development.

Makamba says civil society groups can also help to plan a path to the future in which Africa uses its vast natural resources to the benefit of its people, a fact supported by Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, chairperson of the African Union.

In fact, Dr Zuma puts it clearly: “For Africa to effectively manage its vast natural resources, citizens should help to chart a path to the future in which the continent uses its natural resources productively, in a sustainable manner, to the benefit of its people; indeed a future in which the use of natural resources leads to Africa’s development and a future that claims an equal and dignified place in the global community of nations.”