For over 65 years, countries in Africa have strived and succeeded in attaining political Independence than financial independence. Interestingly, these countries in Africa seem to love and boast of their political independence than striving for financial and economic independence and still print their currencies in Europe and North America.so Africans are still being colonised by their colonial masters financially and economically because these masters still control their finances. The Briton Wood Institutions still control their economies and decide what they spend, how they spend and when they spend. They also control their resources and always want them to export their natural resources in crude form with no value addition, which is sad and pathetic
How can the continent of Africa attain financial freedom and economic independence when they spend millions of dollars printing money in Europe and the United States of America?
With the emergency of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, it is about time that the Africa Union found a common ground to establish a security printing press that would take up the mandate to print currencies for all the countries on the continent. This can also help facilitate the introduction of a common currency for all the countries in Africa in the medium to long term in a bid to reduce the over dependence on Europe and North America for currency printing.
Ghana for instance, prints its currency, the Ghana cedi with the British Banknote Giant DeLa Rue.
According to the DW, At least 40 African countries print their money in the UK, France and Germany — decades after independence, raising questions about self-sufficiency. DW further reveals that More than two-thirds of Africa’s 54 countries print their money overseas, mostly in Europe and in North America. It comes at a time when the African Union is trying to usher in a golden, made-in-Africa age that should see Africa beef up production and enjoy greater profits.
Among the top firms that African central banks partner with is British banknote printing giant De La Rue, Sweden-based Crane, and Germany’s Giesecke+Devrient. It is perhaps surprising that almost all African countries import their currencies. The practice could even raise questions of national pride and national security.
For richer countries, like Angola and Ghana, there’s also the issue of real autonomy and economic sufficiency.
The process of economic independence does not occur concurrently with the process of political independence. When a former colonial possession achieves political independence, their economy is still engaged in a colonial economic system; this is apparent nowhere more so than in sub-Saharan Africa. The ability for the new state to transition from the colonial system to the current global capitalist system is a process of establishing institutions within the state to foster domestic growth and create economic sustainability for the state. In an effort to assist developing states transition from colonial to the global capitalist system, developed western nations have used foreign aid to help feed the people, build infrastructure and prop up the governments of emerging “democracies.” This kind of dependency perpetuation is no better for developing states then the colonial system they are attempting to remove themselves from, indeed, aid is simply a proxy for colonial rule, and does not carry a developing state in the proper direction toward established institutions and an economy successfully established in the global capitalist system.
By Kwabena Adu Koranteng