Opinion
Franc zone African states should emancipate from France, build relations with China and the rest of Africa
Meanwhile, French banks charge at least 5-6 percent interest on the loans that they grant to francophone African governments to finance their budget deficits.
With the commercial lending rate at a high of 18 percent, bank credit to the franc zone’s private sector has dropped to 12.7 percent of GDP, compared to 36.5 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and 78.9 percent in South Africa, the region’s leading economy.
Senegalese Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye has cited high interest rates as a major impediment to GDP growth. Last November, at a conference marking the Central Bank of West African States’ 50th anniversary, Senegalese President Macky Sall pleaded for an interest rate reduction.
But neither France’s near-total control of money and credit, nor its strong influence over politics and security, is wholly responsible for keeping the franc zone countries mired in poverty and instability. By misappropriating public funds for personal use, franc zone leaders serve as accomplices to France’s institutionalized exploitation of the CFA franc zone countries and citizens.
Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), the franc zone’s leading economy, was a net rice exporter in the early 1970’s, until the country’s elite followed the advice of French expatriates to import rice rather than produce it.
With the help of import licensing, then Finance minister Konan Bédié earned his first billion CFA francs within a year. Around the same time, then president Félix Houphouët-Boigny, and a figurehead of African independence movements, publicly warned Africans of the risks of keeping their fortunes in Africa.
More recently, Karim Wade, the son of former Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, was arrested on suspicion that he amassed a fortune of roughly US$1.5 billion during his father’s presidency, when he held senior ministerial positions.
