What kind of aid is appropriate for Africa?

As the curtains fell down on the US-Africa summit last week, there was a sudden realization of one thing. That the usual lectures about democracy, governance, and rule of law had been toned down, and that the United States was even willing to accommodate seasoned dictators like Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema and Gambia’s Yahya Jahmmeh. That the United States engaged almost wholly on business and economic matters is both a good and a bad thing. 

It is a good thing in that the US has finally acknowledged the true potential of Africa aside from the usual aid towards humanitarian needs. The US now sees Africa as a continent beaming with opportunities, and one that might serve economic interests of the US well. In fact, the United States is late to this party, as other

emerging powers such as Brazil, China, and India long ago woke up to the reality of the opportunities in Africa. Already, several US companies such as IBM, General Electric, Google, and Coca Cola are drawing up robust plans to ensure that they do not miss out on the tremendous economic opportunities that Africa’s booming middle class presents.

On the other hand, the lack of a call for democracy may encourage dictators on the continent that they are on the right track, and this may present serious problems to the continent’s growth prospects. More crucially however, is the issue of aid, and how the continent benefits from it. The United States through the power fund has promised to increase the connection of African homes and businesses to the electric grid by more than $5 billion, which would put this among the most supported projects by the US government to foreign governments. Such aid that is for building long term infrastructure of the continent is to be encouraged. Too often, aid money has gone to causes which cannot be accounted for, and this initiative will likely change those perspectives. Still, even as Africa searches for the right kind of aid, it must not be on a master servant relationship, but aid that is on a mutual relationship and one that makes sense to both sides, except during calamities or disasters such as the recent Ebola virus in West Africa.