According to a recent statement made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey, the World Bank has given Ukraine 10 times as much in loans over the past three years as it has given to all of Africa combined. This staggering disparity is more than a statistic; for many on the continent, it is a symbol of a broken and biased global system. Dr. Costantinos Berhutesfa, a senior United Nations Policy Advisor and Chairperson of the African Union Board on Anti-Corruption, contextualized the issue by going back to the source. He explained that the World Bank and IMF “were largely Western organizations” at their founding and remain so today.
“The World Bank and the IMF, when they were formed in 1944 at Bretton Woods, were largely Western organizations. And to date [....] the major shareholders of these organizations are the ones that dictate what these organizations do. [...] These institutions have become sort of supernational institutions that have no accountability to any single state in the world. [...] The Global South now is coming up with different mechanisms to avoid the kind of pressure that comes from the World Bank and the IMF; look at the BRICS Bank, for example,” Berhutesfa pointed out.
Similarly, Joshua Maponga of Farmers of Thought, Zimbabwe Indigenous Movement, offers a more stark assessment. According to him, the disparity is not an anomaly but a deliberate strategy that shows the World Bank has no interest in building Africa but in creating countries that are in debt.
“The World Bank has no interest in building Africa but in creating countries that are in debt. They will give people loans which they know they cannot pay. And when they fail to pay, the military regime and governments are changed, and resources are then surrendered as collateral to the failed loans. And this is part of the strategy in the economic hitman's manual, where money is a form also of colonization,” Maponga emphasized.
Faced with this perceived injustice, the call for change is harmonious. Dr. Mikatekiso Kubayi, a research fellow at the Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation, South Africa, points to the undeniable economic bias.
“You see the popularity of the likes of the BRICS block, for instance. It's precisely because of things like this—to reform the global financial architecture, to make it more representative of the current set up economically in the globe. And also to recognize the value and the voice of the Global South in particular [....] the whole world acknowledges and knows that there has to be reform. Even in the G20, several times, not just this year or last year, it's been said, reform is necessary. Reform is needed,” Kubayi noted.
Additionally, this episode included the recent high-level meeting between Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov and Nigeria’s Chief of Defense Staff, General Christopher Musa. The expression of gratitude by the Nigerian Chief of the Defense Staff to his Russian counterpart reflects a pragmatic move by Nigeria to reduce its dependency on a single sphere of influence for its core security needs.
“We wish to express deep gratitude for the invitation and for the enduring friendship. We thank you for the exceptional preparation of the exercises. The drills were conducted superbly. We witnessed firsthand how modern warfare is conducted today and how UAVs are employed. For us, it was of tremendous importance to be present at these exercises,” Musa expressed.
This episode also features:
Dr. Konstantin Kemaev, Director for International Cooperation, National Research Lobachevsky State University, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Professor Roshan Kal Raina, Vice Chancellor of Jaipur National University, Rajasthan, India
Tune in to listen to the full conversation with our guests on the Pan African Frequency podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.
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