African countries are eager to join the global trend of ditching the US dollar to escape from Washington using the greenback as a tool of manipulation, Dr Frederick Golooba-Mutebi, Ugandan independent researcher and political scientist told Sputnik Africa.
"African countries like others out there, are quite happy to jump onto the bandwagon of de-dollarization so that they can reduce the susceptibility to US dominance and manipulation," the expert stressed.
According to Golooba-Mutebi, Africa is heading towards a multipolar world, where there will be no room for economic manipulation by the US, which "dictates conditions to countries, and if they are not willing, punishes them by imposing all kinds of sanctions, including financial ones."
The analyst cited Zimbabwe as an example of the US using sanctions as a tool of manipulation, saying that the Southern African country's economy was "literally brought to its knees" by Western sanctions once Zimbabwe started carrying out its land reform.
However, the issue is not limited to sanctions, but also concerns humanitarian aid to the continent.
"US government and also other governments that give aid to Africa use aid as a tool and when it suits them, they will use the language of poverty reduction...We have seen so many examples of countries that fall foul of US ambitions, which are then subject to sanctions," Golooba-Mutebi underlined.
The shift from the dollar to national currencies away, in addition to ridding it of manipulation, also focuses on stimulating African trade, the researcher believes.
According to him, African countries will not be restrained from trading because of the shortage of greenbacks and will be more active in transactions within the continent.
"Countries will no longer aspire to export their goods beyond the borders of Africa in order to earn dollars. They can simply export to each other and make arrangements to trade in their own currency, Golooba-Mutebi noted. "So I see this as potentially having the effect of boosting trade within Africa itself and among African countries themselves."
Earlier, Kenya's President William Ruto, questioned the need for US currency in intra-African trade and called for a transition to national currencies.
On Monday, a similar initiative came from David Sankok, a Kenyan member of the East African Legislative Assembly, who suggested that East African countries should trade in local currency since using the dollar is becoming "expensive, punitive, cumbersome, inconvenient and troublesome."
Looking more widely, the BRICS countries are likewise discussing a possibility of establishing a single currency for the bloc to ditch the US dollar.
Brazilian President Lula da Silva has recently announced that Brazil intends to raise the issue at the bloc's upcoming summit in South Africa in August, the move, supported by Russia as well.
Recently, Ashraf Patel, a senior research associate with the Institute for Global Dialogue and a member of the South Africa BRICS Think-Tank Network, told Sputnik Africa that the prospect of a single BRICS currency was very promising in light of the "unsustainability" of the US domestic financial system.