An alternative approach to financing development in Africa

Abstract

To make adequate capital available to finance development projects in Africa, several important and innovative ideas became popular in the early and later post-independent years. Much of these ideas included a proposal for International Finance Facility (IFF) to increase development aid substantially for the millennium development goals (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015, the use of global environmental taxes, tax on currency flows (the ‘Tobin tax’), creation of new special drawing rights (SDRs), increased private donations for development, global lottery and global premium bond; and increased remittances from emigrants. In addition, the conventional official development assistance (ODA) needed to be doubled for the goals of the MDGs to be achieved. Here, we make a case for renewed international efforts directed at recovery of looted resources and their judicious application to the financing of development projects in Africa.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, de facto political power, development finance