Liberia History & Information

Africa Economy Landscape

 

Introduction:

 

Measuring economic development is a difficult process. Existing attempts to assess national development are still suffering from conceptual and measurement challenges. This has led to a literature that is, in general, excessively focused on economic development without connection to the capabilities of those institutions to expedite economic development of citizens. (Holmes and Gutiérrez de Piñeres, 2006: 54)

Africa is home to most of the least developed countries in the world. It suffers from poor infrastructure, limited trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), huge external debts, rampant corruption, and mismanagement. Approximately, seventy percent of Africa’s population lives on less than $2 a day. Despite these challenges, a number of positive developments have taken place in recent years. Since 1995, Africa has generally averaged between 3 and 5 percent annual economic growth. Many countries have implemented political and economic reforms to strengthen economic growth and attract more FDI. Regional economic organizations have fostered greater trade among neighbors. Steps have been taken by developed countries to alleviate Africa’s debt burden. This update looks at the economic challenges that Africa faces and prospects for future economic development on the continent.

 

I-African Economies Today:

 

By the mid-1990s, many African economies began to improve after years of decline. But even with this improvement, poverty remains widespread. In order to truly understand African economies and their prospects for further development, one must first get a clear picture of the main economic activities on the continent. These activities include agriculture, energy and mineral resource extraction, industry and trade, and government service. In addition, it is important to examine rates of unemployment.

 

I-1-Agriculture

 

Sixty-two percent of Africa’s population lives in the countryside. Most of them work in agriculture. Agriculture is largely undertaken by hand on small plots of family or village land, where economies of scale cannot take hold. Many African farmers are poor and survive at subsistence levels.

African states often have only a few cash crops. When world demand for a country’s few agricultural exports declines, or when droughts or other natural disasters occur, the country is left unable to pay for badly needed imports. Such situations are made worse by the fact that neighboring countries often produce similar products. The production of similar products leads to increased competition, lower prices, and reduced opportunities for regional trade.

Nevertheless, the African Union’s New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) characterizes agriculture as “the engine for growth in Africa.” This statement reflects the fact that 16 percent of all sub-Saharan African exports are food products.

Trade barriers and agricultural subsidies in industrialized countries also handicap Africa’s efforts to develop through agricultural exports. For example, West and Central Africa potentially lose $250 million in annual revenues from cotton exports due to the US subsidies alone. Better access to markets in the developed world would allow African countries to become less reliant on aid and loans.

 

I-2-Energy and Mineral Resource Extraction:

 

Africa has immense deposits of energy and mineral resources. In North Africa, oil and gas play a major role in the economies of Algeria, Egypt, and Libya. Libya derives over 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) from petroleum exports, and Algeria derives over 30 percent.

Egypt’s energy earnings are more limited, but still significant.

In sub-Saharan Africa, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, and Sudan all have significant energy resources. Most of the west coast of Africa, stretching from Angola in the south to Côte d’Ivoire in the northwest, is rich in oil. In 2005, West Africa supplied 14 percent of U.S. oil imports, and that number is expected to rise to 25 percent by 2015.

Africa also has enormous non-energy resources. In addition to oil, Angola has diamonds, gold, bauxite, and uranium. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has cobalt, copper, diamonds, gold, silver, tin, and uranium. Guinea has almost half of the world’s bauxite reserves.

Namibia has large deposits of copper, diamonds, lead, tin, and zinc. Zambia has large quantities of cobalt, copper, lead, and zinc. And South Africa, a rich African state in terms of mineral resources, has huge quantities of antimony, chromium, copper, diamonds, gold, manganese, nickel, platinum, tin, and uranium.

If Africa holds such enormous energy and mineral wealth, why is it one of the poorest regions of the world? First, one must consider Africa’s historical legacies and the general problems associated with a reliance on only a few primary products for export. Second, much of Africa’s natural wealth is concentrated in only a few countries. Third, some countries that have natural wealth have not been able to exploit it. Fourth, foreign corporations often play a central role in the exploitation of Africa’s natural wealth. These businesses pay wages and bring in investment and technology. However, there have also been many cases where foreign firms have abused populations, severely degraded the environment, and taken home huge profits. Finally, even when African states have control over their natural resources, few people generally benefit.

Corruption on the part of government and corporate officials is a significant problem. Money that could be used for development needs is often diverted into personal bank accounts.

 

I-3-Industry and Trade:

 

Industrial production in Africa is modest but it is increasing. It accounts for about one-third of the overall African GDP. Also, African trade grew from $230 billion in 2000 to $457 billion in 2005. Nevertheless, it is important to note that African countries account for only 2 percent of world trade.

Under the United States “African Growth and Opportunity Act” (AGOA), thirty-seven sub- Saharan African countries receive trade preferences as they export goods to the United States.

Initially, this expanded access led to strong job gains in the textile industry. However, since 2005, U.S. imports of African textile products under AGOA have been decreasing, while U.S. AGOA-related imports of crude oil, platinum, diamonds, and cocoa have been increasing.

An increasing number of Africans are engaged in export processing zones (EPZs). In these areas, they are paid by multinational corporations to assemble imported parts into finished products for reexport. The main criticism of EPZs is that export companies are physically separated into their own areas. Technology and production skills often do not spread throughout the rest of the economy.

 

I-4-Unemployment:

 

African countries face many challenges. Even so, many people inside and outside of Africa are working to overcome these challenges.

No reliable estimates exist for the large number of unemployed Africans. However, a look at just a few countries gives some indication of the situation. In 2005, it was reported that 17 percent of Algeria’s work force was unemployed. In 2004, Botswana declared an unemployment rate of 24 percent. In South Africa, at least 27 percent of the country’s workers were looking for employment in 2005. Zimbabwe and Liberia both registered more than 80 percent unemployment in 2005 and 2003 respectively.

The number of underemployed is even more difficult to estimate. Many agricultural workers and those who have migrated to Africa’s cities hold only part-time jobs. They often work in the informal sector outside of taxes and regulation.

 

II-African economic landscape and its development struggle

 

Contemporary Africa is still struggling with the legacies of slavery, colonialism and the deleterious impact of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) and now globalization.

This is not to say that globalization does not offer opportunities but without rethinking development economics both in theory and practice especially at a time when the market ideology has become the dominant one, there is a risk of witnessing further impoverishment of the continent.

Africa tends to be treated as a homogenous block, yet the economies of Africa are diverse, plural and often address their problems in different ways. Some parts of postcolonial Africa have attempted to set up ministries of economic development; others have concentrated on attracting on foreign direct investment (FDI) whilst some others have early on realized that the state and private capital should work hand in hand for development. But these different approaches have not always necessarily had the results that are necessary for development and to make matters more complicated, the continent have to struggle in a context where trade remains inequitable and finding a niche for themselves remains a difficult task. So rethinking development economics at the local, regional and international level has become imperative and different stakeholders such as academics, civil society, trade unionists, business community and the state have an important role to play in the process.

Development itself has for far too long been seen and interpreted within the narrow confines of economic growth and yet development is in fact as Amartya Sen points out development from illiteracy, from want, from diseases. But development seems to elude the masses on the continent. My intention is not to paint an Afro pessimistic picture of the continent but the reality is that the continent is still very poor, ridden with conflicts and struggling with the AIDS pandemic.

Sachs et al. argues that there are three types of poverty traps in Africa: the savings trap, the demographic trap, and the low capital-threshold trap. Thus Africa seems to suffer from many deep-seated, structural problems that propagate poverty. But analyzing poverty and human development without rethinking development economics would not make sense. Amartya Sen reminds us that development, which creates more inequality, is not humanistic. I will be looking for is how to unleash the potential at the “bottom of the pyramid” through pro poor macroeconomics policies that could lead to poverty alleviation in this part of the population. This point also deal with the issue of inequality that Amartya Sen vividly spearheaded when he argues that “everybody today believes in equality of something”: equal rights before the law, equal civil liberties, and equality opportunity and so on. Inequality is an inevitable product of any functioning market economy”

Hernando De Soto5 in his book “The Mystery of Capital” argues that growth in developing countries depends on bringing to life dead capital, and that capitalism has failed in developing countries. African countries for a long period of time were not effectively and efficiently using all their resources for sustainable development, and in some parts of the continent, they were embarking in some kind of macroeconomic policies not taking in consideration certain programmes for sustainable development; here come the issue of good governance. I will be addressing in the book, the issues on regional trade and integration, gender-centered policies, land reforms polices and agro industry.

Furthermore, for a long period of time many African countries were focusing on growth as an ultimate tool, in reducing or alleviating poverty in the continent. The book intends to equip development professionals with new thinking on the shift on development economies in the African context.

 

III-Some Important Indicators

 

Current measures of economic development include overall growth rates; growth rates being measured in purchasing power parity (PPP), human development index (HDI), and independent measures of inequality such as Gini coefficients. Based on the preferences of decision and policymakers, these different measures always tell different stories. To remedy the failure of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to capture purchasing power inequality and to allow cross-country comparisons, PPP equivalents were constructed.

However, growth rates based on constant American dollar (US $) values often mask the distribution of wealth. Growth rates can increase dramatically but still fail to raise the overall well being of the general population of a country or region. (Holmes and

Gutiérrez de Piñeres, 2006: 54). Other measures were constructed to address the fact that income alone is not a sufficient measure of development. The physical quality of life index is a composite score of life expectancy, infant mortality, and literacy. The problem is that this measure reveals more about the quantity as opposed to the quality of life.

A very wide variety of indicators can be used to characterize the difference between developed and developing countries. However, some of these are more reliable than others.

 

 

III-1-GDP per capita:

 

GDP per capita is the total value of (final i.e. not intermediate) goods and services produced within a country divided by the total population. It also illustrates the relative difference between countries categorized as “developing”.

On average, people there live on no more than about $2 a day. As a measure of development this seems to be the most important indicator: if people want to be in a position to buy commodities and enjoy high standards of health and education then they will need the income to match.

There are some issues concerning the reliability of this indicator. One problem is measuring GDP in countries where much economic activity is unofficial. The data itself may be collected by governments who use different and more or less efficient methods of measurement. The measurement of inflation is also problematic: if inflation is under-estimated then real output will be over-estimated. Government officials may have an incentive to over-value output (particularly the unsold output of nationalized industries). Another major problem is the high level of subsistence farming in developing countries: non-marketed output may never get measured.

To enable cross-country comparisons the data needs to be standardized to a particular currency. Using current exchange rates is unlikely to be appropriate for this. They are only based on traded goods and are greatly affected by speculative capital flows.

The alternative, finding a purchasing power parity (PPP) rate with which to do the conversion, is non trivial in a world where goods and services differ so widely between countries. There are some other problems. First, it may be more informative to see patterns of GDP per capita growth over time, rather than just a snapshot of a particular year.

Second, there is no sense in which this indicator can tell the whole story of a country’s economic or social situation.

For example, there can be widely varying standards of health and education for countries with similar levels of GDP per head.

The distribution of GDP may also vary, in some countries being much more uneven than in others. Third, increasing GDP per capita may bring with it costs as well as benefits, particularly if it is brought about in a non-sustainable way: the level of negative externalities needs to be considered.

 

III-2-Measures of Poverty

 

It is important to understand the difference between absolute and relative poverty.

Absolute poverty refers to the inability to acquire goods necessary to satisfy basic needs e.g. the means to obtain the minimum level of nutrition necessary to sustain an active life. Basic needs also tend to include clothing and shelter. Put simply, absolute poverty is having .just enough to survive but no more. However, it is well worth considering whether what counts as absolute poverty is, to some extent, relative to the culture concerned: the concept is by no means uncontroversial.

Relative poverty refers to the differential of income and wealth between people or countries. That is, it involves some comparison across economies.

One indicator of absolute poverty is the percentage of the population receiving less than the equivalent of $1 a day income. For most developed countries there is no absolute poverty according to this measure because of social security benefits. The World Bank estimates that 1.2bn people live off less than $1 a day, with a further 1.6bn existing on less than $2 a day.

The figures for absolute poverty have to be treated with some caution for reasons similar to those discussed for GDP per capita. The concept is itself rather loose, and a $x a day measure is somewhat arbitrary: especially as local costs of living vary enormously and there are wide variations across countries of, for example, climate.

There is also something of a preconceived idea involved in defining poverty in terms of income levels. It may be that for some people there are other more pressing objectives e.g. having shoes to wear or establishing a separation of living quarters for people and animals. These other objectives may be improving even when income is falling. Many commentators therefore prefer to see “poverty” as a multidimensional concept. This is important because the way poverty is conceptualized will influence the policy measures adopted to deal with it. For example, a definition based exclusively on income will tend to see growth in GDP per head as the only solution to poverty.

Other dimensions of absolute poverty might include access to .essential drugs and the proportion of the population using regulated water supplies.

To shed light on relative poverty it is possible to compare GDP per capita between countries or to look at income distributions within a particular country. The inequalities of income in developing countries can be very pronounced.

Note that relative poverty is an issue even at a local scale of description. For example, within households there can be widely varying distributions of resources e.g. on the basis of age or gender.

 

Infrastructure investment and democracy as a form of government in Africa is the only solution to Africa’s underdevelopment and impoverishment. The continent is lagging behind all the continents in the world in terms of economic and social development. All the countries making up the African continent have similar economic problems namely unemployment, higher deficits, poor state of economic and social infrastructures including roads, harbours, education, airports, telecommunication, health and sanitation.

Centuries of slavery and colonialism deprived the continent of her able human and economic resources. Where as the able men and women were carried away to work in the plantations of the Americas (in all about 30 – 40 million), the natural resources where looted by the European countries namely Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Italy. After slavery was abolished the looting of the natural resources continued. The irony is that virtually all the income from these resources was used to finance the economic and the infrastructural development of the European countries with little or nothing used to develop the various countries where these resources came from. A clear example is the case of Democratic Republic of Congo where King Leopold II of Belgium enslaved the Africans, forced them to work without pay, killed about 10 million and looted the country of her resources and virtually nothing was used to invest in the country except guns which the Belgium army used to kill the Africans. When the DRC was transferred from Leopold II to the Belgium state the looting and killing continued till DRC gained her independence in the 1960s. In fact DRC (Congo Free State) was the main supplier of rubber a vital raw material for the tyre industry and all the money from the sale of the rubber went to Belgium. King Leopold II was able to transform Belgium as one of the poorest countries in Europe into one of the wealthiest courtesy the enslavement and looting of Africans and their resources.

Belgium was not alone in what they did to the continent. Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Italy all looted Africa of her gold, diamond, ivory, timber, cobalt, and all the minerals you can think of. The Africans who resisted the illegal activities were killed in their millions as happened in South West Africa (now Namibia) where the Germans in 1904 to 1907 committed the first genocide of the 20th Century by killing the Herero and the Namaqua people. While Europe became richer Africa became poorer and the trend continued till the 1950s when the African countries started to gain their ‘independence’beginning with Libya in 1951, Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia all in 1956 and Ghana in 1957.

With little or no investment in the continent the various post colonial governments inherited countries with practically no infrastructure: roads, rails, harbours, telecommunications, education, health and sanitation and airports. The only areas which saw some few infrastructure investments during the colonial days were those where raw materials were heavily extracted. The attainment of independence did not come on silver Plata. Algeria, Zimbabwe, Angola, Kenya, Namibia and to some extent South Africa all attained their independence from their colonial masters through arm struggles and in most cases the few infrastructures that existed were destroyed due to the conflict.

As if slavery, colonialism and the looting of the continent’s resources were not enough the continent became a battle ground during the Cold War as the two super powers and their allies battled for influence and control on the continent mainly for her resources. As a result many African governments who were deem to be pro-Russia or America were overthrown using the military. A case in point was the overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana on February 24th ,1966.Another example is the overthrow and assassination of  Patrice Lumumba of Congo on January 17th 1961.Other leaders such as Nelson Mandela were imprisoned for either advocating for independence or improvement of conditions of Africans.  CIA and the western intelligence community have been implicated for engineering the assassinations and overthrow of elected leaders of Africa. For example Larry Devlin, the CIA Station Chief in Congo during Patrice Lumumba’s  days spoke to Washington Post in December 2008 saying he refused an order to assassinate Patrice Lumumba but his refusal did not stop the CIA and the Belgium government from overthrowing and assassinating him. The assassination attempt on Gamal Nasser of Egypt on 24th October 1954 and the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981 were alleged to be the work of Britain M16 due to their refusal to hand over the administration of the Suez Canal the British.  The CIA, KGB and their allies encouraged and financed wars and political instabilities throughout the continent. Angola became the battle ground for the CIA, KGB and the Chinese as each tried to gain control over the country, her people and resources. The civil war that engulfed the country in 1975 only ended in 1991 after 26 years of conflict. When the war ended the few infrastructures that remained after the war of independence (1961-1974) were gone.

The product of these assassinations and coups were the political instabilities and the wanting destruction of lives and property including infrastructures that have bedevilled Africa till today. As the elected leaders of the continent were assassinated, overthrown and subjected to all forms of cold war tactics including bribery, arm twisting and blackmail the continent degenerated and faulted on all aspects of human endeavour. The new crop of leaders who replaced the post colonial independence leaders and who were largely puppets of the European and American governments became increasingly authoritarian and corrupt. Joseph Mobutu Seseseku who became the choice of the Americans after they help to assassinate Lumumba ruled Congo for 32 years and in those years the country became poorer as Mobutu and his cronies got richer and the western countries notably USA and her allies had free hand looting the mineral resources most importantly cobalt a very important mineral needed for missile development. Little infrastructure activities was carried out by Mobutu. As a result Congo today can only be accessed by boats and canoes mainly through the River Congo.

As tyrants and dictators gained the support of western governments and did whatever they wanted with their economies without questions their people became poorer and hopelessness and desperation were the hallmarks of their lives. As the little money that came into government coffers were taken by corrupt government officials and civil servants there were almost no money to carry out infrastructural development and the poverty deepened. Poverty, desperation and hopelessness visited the people and coupled with their inability to change their leaders democratically, dissents were sowed among the population which serve as breeding grounds for more coups, civil wars and civil disturbances. This was evidence in Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Ivory Coast, The Gambia, Liberia, Mauritania, Algeria, Gabon, Togo, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Sierra Leone all experienced coups in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and even in the early 1990s. These waves of coups were followed by civil wars that hit Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Congo, Chad, CAR, Somalia, Uganda, Sudan, Angola, Niger and Guinea. These wars apart from it human cost also contributed to the destruction of roads, harbours, airports, rail lines, telecommunications, hospitals, schools and many more. With the absence of infrastructures the countries have been unable to make any headway in terms of economic development. To reverse centuries of slavery and colonialism on one hand and decades of coups and civil wars on the other hand, governments should focus their attention on building the infrastructures on the continent.

This is because the state of infrastructures on the continent is nothing to write home about: the roads, harbours, telecommunications, health, education, market and airport are either none existence or are in a state to appalling to describe. We have neglected the few that have existed to decay yet we have forgotten that no continent or nation no matter the size of the natural resources that she has can develop without investing in infrastructure. That is why Democratic Republic of Congo has every mineral you can think of yet they are one of the poorest on the continent. That is why Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong have developed and that is why President Elect Obama  is talking about building US infrastructures because they are the engines that run the economy. You cannot export if you do not have harbours and airports to support it. You cannot attract tourists if you do not have airport, hotels and other infrastructure that support it. You cannot move goods from centres of production to centres of consumption if you do not have roads, rail lines and inland water infrastructure to deliver it. You cannot supply the industries with doctors, architects, bankers, lawyers, planners, engineers, teachers, nurses if you do not have the educational infrastructure to deliver it. And you cannot run an efficient and vibrant economy if you do not have the energy and telecommunication infrastructures in place. Africa has been experiencing serious disruptions in the energy sector for years and no government has seen any wisdom to solve. As a result factories are folding up and are laying off workers and we are waiting for nature to help fill our dams before we rectify the problem. Could these do nothing approaches to problem solving help our continent and nations to develop? What are we doing with the abundance of sunshine on the continent? We have not taken advantage of it, have we? We have sunshine 365 days and we have not tap into solar energy which is cheap and more reliable than hydro. It is another indication of the useless institutions that we have and lip service paid by the various political parties and their leaders to development. Look around yourselves and see if any of the goods you see are made in Africa. I mean the mobile phones, computers, televisions, cars and all the flashy things that Africans are crazing for. It is sad to note that almost all the raw materials needed to build these mobile phones, cars etc are obtained from countries on the continent.

To appreciate the importance of infrastructure as the bedrock of the continent’s development let us consider transportation infrastructure in a country for example. The development of every country is strongly dependent on a reliable transportation infrastructure system for internal transportation and for linking rural communities to market centres. The role of infrastructure to the economy of a nation cannot be overemphasized especially its effect on sustainable development, GDP growth, inflation, and poverty reduction. Efficient and effective provision of transportation infrastructure in a nation underlines all attempts to reduce poverty.

Transportation infrastructure plays essential role by unifying all sectors of the economy including agriculture, health, education, trade, industries, and services. It is therefore said that transportation is the life wire of the economy. Without transport infrastructure social and economic activities and development in general will stagnate. Transport infrastructure ensures that raw materials are brought to the factory, while industrial finished goods are also distributed to market centres and communities where they are mostly needed. Agriculture commodities such as food crops are made available to urban dwellers through roads, rails, airports and harbours. Transportation infrastructure also ensures that services produced elsewhere are available where they are needed and at appropriate time.

Transportation infrastructure again makes the administration of political entities such as districts, boroughs and regions easy because it provides access to social infrastructural facilities such as schools, clinics, hospitals, markets, security services, and administrative offices. Transportation infrastructure has a correlation in the improvement of the overall living standards of people living in both rural and urban communities. It improves the quality of life of the people and has added advantage of ensuring rapid growth and sustainable development and has a long run effect of alleviating poverty.

In areas where transportation infrastructure facilities are unavailable or have deteriorated in the   serious difficulties are encountered in the production, distribution and marketing of goods and services. Such situations also have negative implications for the patronage of goods and services produced as well as usage of such facilities such as clinics, hospitals, markets, and schools. This has a negative repercussion on the state and quality of life of the people affected by such situations as well as a down trodden effect on production and productivity levels in the areas where the transportation infrastructure condition is bad. It is a well recognized fact that transportation infrastructure and for that matter all infrastructure investments have correlations in development and hence the standard of living of the people.

 To move the continent away from its current predicament, public transportation infrastructure works should be carried out by all governments. Fast speed rail lines should be constructed to link the various parts of the continent. This will make the transport of bulky raw materials and goods easier. Roads should be constructed to make transportation less difficult.  River Nile which is the longest river in the world should be developed as a major internal water transportation network so that goods could be transported up and down the stream. The other major rivers such as the Limpopo, Zambezi, Congo, Niger all should be developed to make it possible for goods and people to move easily. Every effort should be made to develop the technology that will harness the solar energy potential of the Sahara Desert so as to make access to energy easily. 

Major harbours such as those in Durban, Cape Town, Lagos, Tema, Mombasa,  Port Said, Tunis, Tripoli and Benghazi should be developed be expanded if necessary and every effort should be made to remove every administration bottleneck and bureaucracy that will cripple trade and development. The airport infrastructure should be developed to make it easier for people to move with ease throughout the continent. The international airports in each country should be expanded if need be and should be equipped with modern technology to make less cumbersome for passengers to go through. Besides bureaucracies, administration bottlenecks, delays that inhibit easy flow of people should be eliminated. Therefore there should be a common immigration policy which is well streamlined to take care of the people. The benefit of transportation investment is enormous and therefore should be given a priority.

If we can benefit so much from transportation infrastructure then how about our education sector upon which the development of the continent and our nations rest? The education infrastructures on the continent and in our nations have not been developed. Have they? Look at the world ranking of Universities and see where the first university on the continent falls. Can we afford to develop the continent and our nations with low quality graduates not to mention the millions of illiterates and semi-literates that roam around the continent and in our countries? Of the about 9,760 Accredited universities in the World, less than 10 universities were able to make it the top 500 and even those that made it about 90% came from South Africa which is the most developed country on the continent (source: topuniversities.com). It is abundantly clear that our education system is not producing the architects, engineers, planners, bankers, lawyers, doctors, teachers, social workers, nurses and the scientists that we need in the 21st Century. That is why every major architectural and engineering activity on the continent is undertaken by foreigners and foreign companies especially from USA, Japan, China, India and Europe. And any continent and for that matter any nation that depends on foreign expertise for her survival is doom to fail in the long run.

The Universities lack well trained lecturers. They lack modern facilities such as state of the art libraries, laboratory simulation facilities, studios, computers, and books. They lack them because we cannot build them; we cannot build them because the curricula have not prepared our students to build them. As a result we have to import the equipments and books from countries that have done their home work well and have invested heavily in education notably in science and technology. In many of our universities, Polytechnics and secondary schools lecturers/teachers are still teaching students the same way the 19th century academic institutions taught forgetting that we are in the 21st century. The same notes given a final year student four years ago are still being given to first year students with no addition and subtraction.  Lecturers cannot write books for students because they do not have the resources to carry out research that form the basis of any academic material.

Whereas students in advanced countries get their hands on books immediately they are released those on the continent have to wait 4 years or even more to get the same books. What is more the academic facilities including libraries are in a state too appalling to describe. Not a single of our universities can boast of more than two million volumes of books in their libraries. Even the few books that they have are so old that information contained in them are useless. Very few books have been published by Africans. Due to this most students have to rely on the notes that lecturers give them. This is state of our universities and the little I say about our Polytechnics and secondary schools (High Schools) the better. Our research institutions have achieved very little because they are underfunded and the researchers do not have the expertise and the facilities to carry out any meaningful research. A case in point is Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) located at New Tafo in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Despite decades of its existence Ghana still exports raw cocoa beans for peanuts. No value has been added to the cocoa. CRIG has not been able to come up with other ways in which to use the beans to benefit Ghanaians despite the mounting evidence that the beans have several potential uses. In order to make Africa continent and the governments should make education a priority. They should as matter of urgency and of necessity invest in educational infrastructure.

In addition to these institutions of higher learning should be structured to produce engineers, doctors, lawyers, bankers, sociologists and all the various human resource needed for nation building. Exchange programmes should be established between the institutions and universities on the continent so that students on the continent could meet, interact and share ideas. Every effort should be used to raise the learning and quality of learning on the continent. Effort should be made to attract Africans in the Diaspora to come and share their expertise with their colleagues and contribute their knowledge towards the development of the continent.  Research institutions should be established across the continent and funding provided to them to come up with how the various natural resources on the continent could be used to benefit the people. With the right human resource capacity Africans could now embark on their journey of liberating her people from poverty

How about the state of the housing infrastructure? A visit to any village or town gives the same picture of poor housing and poor quality of public service. People are living in mud/thatched houses with bamboo or raffia leaf as roofing sheet with no electricity, potable water and clinics. They live in a subsistence environment without social security, health insurance and are condemned to poverty, desperation and hopelessness. Those living in urban areas are without jobs, without mortgage, and face high utility bills with poor service. They face constant barrage of water and energy disruptions everyday. In every country, region, district the situation is not different. On the other hand our MPs, ministers, vice presidents, the presidents and political leaders, their cronies and families live in total luxury with mansions, SUVs, bodyguards, fat salaries, fat bonuses, house servants and they have all the resources of the continent at their disposal. Yet they claim to be serving the people. How can it be? Governments should invite the private sector to take part in the delivery of housing. Land and other service infrastructure such water, electricity and waste management should be provided to make it less difficult for the private sector to join.

Look at the state of the agricultural sector. How many of our farmers have their own tractors and farming equipments to produce beyond the level of subsistence? Virtually none. Nearly all the important equipments needed to make the agric sector viable and productive have to be imported and how many of our farmers have their own resources to buy even the basic machinery to expand their farms? Although we are in the 21st Century yet our farming practices indicate that we have still not moved beyond the 19th century. This is the more reason why we continue to hunger even though rich soils abound in Africa. During the early part of the 2008 financial crisis violence broke out in Egypt, Sierra Leone and in many other countries on the continent. Why is this so? The answer is we have neglected the sector for quite too long. Farmers have no access to irrigation which can make farming all year round possible. They have to rely on nature for rain before they can start planting. They have no access to credits could help them to expand their farms. Yet Ethiopia for example could afford millions of dollars to buy military hardware while famine threatens to annihilate her people. She cannot afford tractors and irrigation equipments that could help put food on the table and bring back her people’s dignity. Lack of agricultural infrastructure has brought famine to millions on the continent. There are no silos for storage during bumper harvest. No roads to producing areas. We under utilise our land for lack of political commitment. We cannot develop our economies if we fail to invest in infrastructure.

Besides, trade among the countries should be encouraged at all levels. Africans must know that together they stand or fall and therefore the old politics of former colonial master first and neighbours second should be discouraged and stopped straightway.  This is the more reason why it is so important that these countries trade among themselves, develop their market, share their resources so that the lives of their citizens will improve. The continent should not be allowed to serve as the dumping ground for European manufactured goods. Import substitution industries should be adopted widely on the continent and trade should be encouraged at all levels. The era where raw materials with little added value are exported for peanuts should be given the boot. As the Americans used to say to the Japanese‘if Japan wants a share of the American market then their goods should be manufactured right here in America. The same yardstick should apply to any company or country that wants a share of the African raw material.

All national interests should give way to a common interest for the good of the people on the continent and the allegiance and influence of outside bodies should be treated as detraction. Africa and her people must be given a serious consideration in all matters of economic, social and political developments. The old philosophy of selling out the continent to international cartels and corporation should be given the boot. Africans should know that the Europeans, Americans and their Bretton Wood Institutions have no interest to see them develop at best they would rather that slavery and colonialism were back.

The above mentioned issues should be given a priority if Africa is to break away from the cycle of poverty which the people have endured for decades if not centuries.   

Hope that the 21st Century will be different for the continent. Hope that infrastructure building will be given a higher priority by the various African Union members.

Beware Of Africans (Senegal, Liberia, Nigeria)and Their Money Schemes & Snares

 

I believe that no other time is most suitable than now, for me to take this opportunity to write to you of Africans and their BIG MONEY MARKETING TRADE SCHEMES. I am currently sick and tired of the erroneous stories that I have been seeing from time to time in my mailbox. Please note that I have absolutely no animosity against any African or any other race. At the end of my article you would be convinced of the different types of people there are on this earth, the extent a person would go to for MONEY, even mentioning God’s name amongst all those lies without any remorse. I would include some personal examples of e- mails I received.

 

I just cannot understand why people do these things. I want to say I did not get caught with any of these scheming e-mailers. The first time I got one of those emails I must be honest and say that my heart did went out, as any normal human being would after reading and trying to digest such sad stories.

 

Receiving email after email reading more heart rending plights you automatically would try to help. But then it starts to get queerer and then money shows up itself. E.g. you are asked to help fund them in some way either for food/raiment. I mean about 60% of Africa is poor and hearing about people who in a refugee camp and doesn’t have food to eat etc, would surely break your heart.

 

What I realized with my first experience was that I made a mistake replying to the first email but I just didn’t want to be harsh and turn away from even hearing someone’s cry.

 

I wish very much that some how God would convict these people and help them to stop their filthy lies and turn away from their evil ways. God said in his word that money is the ROOT OF ALL EVIL. I have seen that displayed so many times people can do imaginable things to get fame and wealth. Schemers remember that you are giving your country a bad reputation and know one would want to issue any help to you. Also sometime in your life you would really need someone to display kindness to you and I am afraid to say that you maybe shunned.

I guess that you are completely unaware that you all can be goggled and search through various search engines or is it that you know and just don’t care. Maybe this hoax’s has been so successful over the years that you all think that everybody just would jump and send you money without launching an investigation.

 

WEBSITES YOU CAN FIND THESE AFRICAN SCHEMERS ON

Personal Experiences

 

I am just sick and tired of receiving emails from Africa, various parts such as; Nigeria, Senegal, Ethiopia etc. The first one I ever received was from Ms. Jane Mpka. The first e- mail from her was that she wanted to make friends with me and that she is living in a refugee camp in Senegal Africa. Right away I responded to the e- mail “saying hello and I hope all is well etc”.

The next day I received a letter in the form of an email stating that she is having such a horrible time at the camp and that she is seeking my help. That evening when I got home I told my uncle about it and he said he received a mail just so, when I went to see it was the same exact mail she had sent me. I started to wonder how she got our emails and how is it that she trust me and wants my help without ever meeting or seeing me.

Think about it this way if u trust someone to help you, wouldn’t you wait and see if that person would help you instead of rushing off to different people at the same time. I said to myself something is up so I played the game. See the following email. Quote on quote just as she sends it to me I just copied and pasted it.

 

WILL LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT YOU.?

From:

Jane Mpka (jane270_4real@yahoo.com)

 

 

Sent:

Saturday, September 13, 2008 8:35:56 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 attachments

 

 

I LOVE U.jpg (3.7 KB), MY LOVE.jpg (2.2 KB)

 

 

 

 

Dearest in Heart,
How are you today together with your work hope fine. I am more than happy in your reply to my mail, I believe this is a good beginning of a long term relationship, well i thank God for keeping me till this moment here in Senegal, My Name is Jane Mpka,24yrs,a young girl from Republic of Liberia in West Africa, and presently am residing in the refugee camp here in Dakar as a result of the civil war going on in my country(Liberia),please don’t be discouraged for hearing this. My late father Col. Daniel Mpka was one of the high officers in the leadership of the formal president Charles Taylor who is now in exile after many innocent souls were killed. My father was unlucky to be among those that were killed by the rebel, on that fateful day I was just like a person whose life has finished on this earth seeing my father and pregnant mother being killed in a minute. In fact, I don’t like telling this story because it causes me a lot of pain and sorrow all the day. It was only me is alive now and I managed to make out my way to a near by country Senegal where am leaving now. Meanwhile dear I would like to know more about you, your likes and dislikes, hobbies and what you are doing presently(business).I will tell you more about myself in my next mail, like I always say that distant or language does not matter, but true love does. Attached here is my picture.

Hoping to hear from you soonest.
Best Regards
Miss Jane

 

Continuation of Ms. Jane Mpka

HAPPY TO HEAR FROM YOU.?

From:

Jane Mpka (jane270_4real@yahoo.com)

Sent:

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 12:52:51 PM

 

 

My Dearest,
How are you today together with your health which is the most important thing to me, I hope fine? I am more than happy in your reply to my mail, well, mine is not so easy here in Dakar Senegal. In this refugee we are only allowed to go out only two times in a week. It’s just like one staying in the prison and I hope by Gods grace I will come out here soon.
I don’t have any relatives now whom I can go to all my relatives ran away in the middle of the war the only person i have now is Rev. Christopher John who is the pastor of the (Christ for all Churches) here in the refugee he has been very nice to me since i came here but am not living with him rather am leaving in the women’s hostel because the refugee have two hostels one for men the other for women.
The Pastors Tel number is (00221-77409-33-39) I will be waiting for your call by 4; pm my own time, if you call and tell him that you want to speak with me he will send for me in the hostel. As a refugee here i don’t have any right or privilege to any thing be it money or whatever because it is against the law of this country.
I want to go back to my studies because I only attended my first year before the tragic incident that lead to my been in this situation now took place. Please listen to this, I have my late father’s Statement of Account and Death Certificate here with me which I will send to you later, because when he was alive he deposited some amount of money in a leading bank in Europe which he used my name as the next of kin, the amount in question is $4.7M (Four Million seven Hundred Thousand Dollars).
So I will like you to help me transfer this money to your account and from it you can send me some money for me to get my travelling documents and air ticket to come over to meet with you.
 So in the light of above I will like you to keep it to yourself and don’t tell it to anyone for I am afraid of loosing my life and the money if people get to know about it. Remember am giving you all this information due to the trust I deposed on you. I like honest and understanding people, truthful and a man of vision, truth and hardworking. My favourite language is English but our language is French but I speak English very fluently. Meanwhile I will like you to call me, like I said I have a Lot to tell you. Have a nice day and think about me.
Waiting to hear from you soonest.
Best Regards
Miss Jane

Continuation of Ms. Jane Mpka

 

PLEASE MY LOVE CONTACT THIS BANK FOR COMFIRMATION AND TRANSFER.?

From:

Jane Mpka (jane270_4real@yahoo.com)

Sent:

Thursday, September 18, 2008 4:26:50 AM

 

 

My Darling Abigail.
How are you today together with your health which is the most important thing to me, I believe that you are doing well.
As for me am fine here with all hope to meet with you immediately after the transfer of my money to your position for a better life.
God will bless and reward you for every effort you are about to make to see me out from this horrible prison called refugee camp where i am living today as a result of  the untimely death of my parents(may their gentle souls rest in peace).
I thank God for the life of Rev Emmanuel George the pastor of the church located in the camp where I recieve and send emails to you. He is very kind and caring also like a father to us.
Here  is the contact information of the bank in Scotland where the money was deposited by my late father is as follows,
Name: ROYAL BANK  OF SCOTLAND PLC
Email Address:(info@scotlandtransferdepatment.zzn.com )
(costumerservice@royalfinance.zzn.com)
Name of Director: Sir Fred A. Goodwin
Telephone number: +44-7031-997-966
Fax number :+44- 8704-714-630
Already I have informed this bank about my intention to claim my late father’s deposit of which my name appears as the next of kin.
The only thing the bank told me is to look for a foreign partner who will assist me in the transfer due to my refugee status here in Senegal, as a refugee I am not allowed direct claim of the money but through an appointed representative as the united refugee law governing refugee all over the world states.
 
Based on this information I will like you to send an email to the transfer department of the bank with this email address:( costumerservice@royalfinance.zzn.com)
(info@scotlandtransferdepatment.zzn.com )
 Attention Sir Fred A. Goodwin the foreign transfer officer of the bank telling him that you are my representative and that you want to assist me transfer my 4.7 million dollars deposited by my late father of which am the next of kin.
THE ACCOUNT INFORMATION ARE AS FOLLOWS.
ACCOUNT NAME IS COL.DANIEL MPKA
AMOUNT 4.7 MILLION US DOLLARS.
NEXT OF KIN MISS JANE MPKA.
ACCOUNT NUMBER RBSCBS-43483002
 
God bless you as you do this today by sending email to the Bank.
Waiting to to hear from you again.
Your’s love Jane

Continuation of Ms. Jane Mpka

 

I THANK GOD FOR YOU?

From:

Jane Mpka (jane270_4real@yahoo.com)

Sent:

Friday, September 19, 2008 7:49:57 AM

To:

 

 

My Dearest Friend Abigail,
How are you today and your health which is the most important thing to me, I hope fine? As for me am fine here with all hope to be with in your country immediately after the transfer of my money into your account, Dear I thank you so much for your caring and been there for me, Dear honestly I want you to know that it is the will of God that I knew you, and I believe that there is a purpose about that, and I pray that God will provide and bless you in all you do to help me,
Dear honestly life here is very difficult and tough, No good food, even good medical treatment, one is really suffering here, I pray that God will help you understand what am passing through here,
Dear the Rev told me that you called, but it was very late, according to what the Rev said, is like we are 5hrs ahead your time, as I write you now is 11:38am in the morning, So you know that actually time to call me, I really want to hear your voice, Dear I thank you so much for your picture too,
So dear am pleading with you to help me so that I can come from here, try as much as you can to contact the bank with their address which i send to you, as to know the procedure of the transfer, and please do keep me inform once you hear from them,
Dear am really suffering here, I wish it will be possible for you to send to me a little money for my feeding, I will be very happy about that, So dear try and contact the bank concerning the transfer, I thank you once again for your love and concern towards me, until I hear from you again, have a lovely weekend and think about me.

yours best friend
Jane

 

Continuation of Ms. Jane Mpka

PLEASE DEAR DON’T ABANDON ME.?

From:

Jane Mpka (jane270_4real@yahoo.com)

Sent:

Monday, September 22, 2008 8:10:48 AM

 

 

Hello Dear,
How are you today, I hope fine? As for me am fine here with all hope that you will assist me to come out from here immediately after the transfer of my money into your account,
Dear I thank you so much for your concern towards me, I pray that God will bless and reward abundantly for that, Dear am really suffering here, leaving here is just like one leaving in prison, I pray that God will help you understand what am passing through here,
Dear I feel little sad today, for few days now you haven’t write me, please dear write me so that I know how you feel, Meanwhile I will like to know if you have heard from the bank and what was their respond? Please do let me know in your next mail, until I hear from you again, have a nice day and think about me.

Yours Friend
Jane

 

THINK ABOUT MY CONDITION AND WHAT AM PASSING THROUGH.?

From:

Jane Mpka (jane270_4real@yahoo.com)

Sent:

Tuesday, September 23, 2008 6:00:22 AM

 

 

Hello Dear,

How are you today and your health which means a lot to me, I hope fine? As for me am not fine, since after reading your mail am not feeling fine? I pray that God will help you understand what am passing through here, honestly my dear am really replying you this mail with tears, I believe that you will understand me, am really confused about your mail, I respond to your brothers email thinking that it is the same email since both is the same surname, and since you have accept helping me, God knows am not seeking help from any other person,only,am writing you this for you to understand, but if you will understand better, but if not, I will be happy also, then I know that is how God want it,

Dear I have understand the doubt you have inside you, honestly only God knows, am not asking you to give me your bank account, am only asking you to help me so that the money which my father left for me can be transferred into your account, but since it has gotten like this, let just forget about the transfer, if you can help me come over there, then i will be there with you, then we can plan about the transfer together, you know the reason why am seeking for your help about the transfer is that, when the bank made the transfer you can then send me some money through it for me to get my passport and other travelling documents, So dear help me, I pray that God will help you understand what am really passing through here, I want you to know that it is the will of God that I knew you, and I believe that there is a purpose about it,

So dear think about my condition and what am passing through, until

 

THINK ABOUT MY CONDITION AND WHAT AM PASSING THROUGH.?

From:

Jane Mpka (jane270_4real@yahoo.com)

Sent:

Tuesday, September 23, 2008 6:00:22 AM

To:

Abigail Chandler (danina.1@hotmail.com)

Hello Dear,

How are you today and your health which means a lot to me, I hope fine? As for me am not fine, since after reading your mail am not feeling fine? I pray that God will help you understand what am passing through here, honestly my dear am really replying you this mail with tears, I believe that you will understand me, am really confused about your mail, I respond to your brothers email thinking that it is the same email since both is the same surname, and since you have accept helping me, God knows am not seeking help from any other person,only,am writing you this for you to understand, but if you will understand better, but if not, I will be happy also, then i know that is how God want it,

Dear i have understand the doubt you have inside you, honestly only God knows, am not asking you to give me your bank account, am only asking you to help me so that the money which my father left for me can be transferred into your account, but since it has gotten like this, let just forget about the transfer, if you can help me come over there, then i will be there with you, then we can plan about the transfer together, you know the reason why am seeking for your help about the transfer is that, when the bank made the transfer you can then send me some money through it for me to get my passport and other travelling documents, So dear help me, I pray that God will help you understand what am really passing through here, I want you to know that it is the will of God that i knew you, and i believe that there is a purpose about it,

So dear think about my condition and what am passing through, until i hear from you again, have a lovely day and think about me.

Yours Friend

Jane.

I hear from you again, have a lovely day and think about me.

Yours Friend

Jane.

 

Continuation of Ms. Jane Mpka

 

 

Until i hear from you?

From:

Jane Mpka (jane270_4real@yahoo.com)

Sent:

Friday, September 26, 2008 8:23:51 AM

 

 

Hello My Dearest Friend,

How are you today and your health, I hope fine? As for me am fine here with all hope that you will assist me in coming out from here that am leaving today, Dear i thank you so much for your concerning and caring towards me, I pray that God will bless and reward you abundantly in all your effort,

Dear am happy reading your lovely mail which gives me joy and hope, Dear i really understand your mail, and i pray that God will also help you in understand all that i will tell you, All i know was that my late father was a Colonel during the time of Charles Taylor, he died on November 2004,but i don’t actually remember the date, in our country General hospital, that’s all i know about that, Our address is plot 17-18 board st Monrovia Liberia.

I believe that you can understand me, Dear honestly, whenever i think and remember about my past it makes me to start crying, I wish that all this painful life will one day end, Dear i wish you will help me come over there, then we will see how possibility it will be doing the transfer together, honestly am really afraid of things, I don’t want disclose about this to any other person, am happy that is only your brother and you that knows about this, that is why am pleading with you now to help me, so that i can come out from here, then when i come over there we can plan about the transfer together, or you can direct me to someone whom you trust and some i will see face to face and understand the person too well; So dear think about all i have said, I pray that God will help you understand it all, until i hear from you again, have a nice weekend and remain bless.

Yours friend

Jane.

SHE IS OUT OF AFRICA

 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PASS EFFORT?

From:

Jane Mpka (jane270_4real@yahoo.com)

Sent:

Tuesday, November 04, 2008 5:29:44 AM

 

 

 

Hello Dear,
How are you, hope you are good. You might think that i have forgotten you. Though it is indeed, quite some time. On my singular, I am much delighted and privileged to contact you again, after couple of days now. It takes fate, courage and God’s fearing to remember old friends and at the same time, to show gratification to them, despite circumstances that made things, not worked out as we projected then. I take this liberty to inform you that, the transaction we were pursing together, finally worked out by God’s infinite mercy and I decided to contact you, just to let you know. I have conscience as a human being, due to your tremendous effort and contribution to make things work out in retrospect. Meanwhile, I must inform you that, I am presently in London at the moment with my partner, which after some weeks there we will move to Island for numerous business negotiations and establishment. I just arrived yesterday night and checked in, in a hotel and decided to go down to the hotel business center to mail you. Now, with my sincere heart, I have raised and signed an International Cashier’s Bank Draft, to the tune of USD$500,000.00 ( FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DECIMAL ZERO-ZERO UNITED STATES DOLLARS) only in your name as COMPENSATION to your dedication, humanity and contribution, as it were. Please, contact NOW,I left the draft with the assistant pastor in the

refugee camp who has taking over in the camp since pastor Emmanuel George has been transfer to another place. his contact information are as follows. He is a reverend barrister.
 
Name: Rev.Christopher John (Active pastor)
E-mail :jrevchristopher@yahoo.com
Telephone number : +221-77-318-45-00
 
You are to forward to him, the following :
1. YOUR FULL NAME & ADDRESS
2. YOUR TELEPHONE NUMBER (If necessary)
 
He, will advise you further about the shipment of the ICBD to your Residence Address or Office Address you may provided. Feel free to reach him via this very mail address and telephone immediately so, your early

 

 ==========================================================

Reverend Christopher’s Johns follow up to scheme me money, seemingly a trick from Jane.

 

URGENT RESPOND?

From:

Rev Christopher John (jrevchristopher@yahoo.com)

Sent:

Wednesday, November 05, 2008 11:07:41 AM

 

 

 

Dear Beloved Sister In the Lord,
How are you once again, I hope God is in control? Let’s His name be exalted, I understand your mail, and concerning the delivery cost, the amount is  136,931.98cfa,in our local currency here, which is 270dollars,So  you are to send it with the address and the name which i send to you, Do call me or send me mail to let me know about that information when you send the money,(0022-77-318-45-00).God Bless.
Rev. Christopher John.

 

 

PLEASE REPLY?

From:

Rev Christopher John (jrevchristopher@yahoo.com)

Sent:

Wednesday, November 05, 2008 1:30:42 PM

 

 

Beloved Sister,
I understand your mail ,the amount is 270us dollar(two hundred and seventy US Dollars)
So inform me once you send the money, you can call me now.
Rev Christopher John.

 

===========================================================

 

MS. NAFI COUMBER

 

Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 08:03:05 -0700
From: nafi_coumber@yahoo.com
Subject: Hello dear new friend
To:

Hello dear new friend, How are you today i hope that every things is ok with you as is my pleasure to contact you in having communication with you if you will have the desire with me so that we can get to know each other better and see what happened in future.

 I will be very happy if you can write me through my email for easiest communication and to know all about each other, i will be waiting to hear from you as i wish you all the best for your day.

Yours New Friend,
Nafi.

Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:14:00 -0700
From: nafi_coumber@yahoo.com
Subject: i will like to know more about you
To: danina.1@hotmail.com

Hi Dear ,
 
thanks for your mail, how is life over there in your country? How is business and the day? i believe you had a nice days and that the arthmosphere over there in your country is very nice today? Mine was a little bit colder over here in Senegal. Having searched through the internet from where i got your email address, i simply have the good memories that you must be a sincere and reliable person, that is why i decided to drop some few lines of words to you, hoping that it will finds you in good faiths.
 
My name is Miss Nafi Coumber i am 23yrs but age doesn’t matter in a real relationship, so i am confortable with your age, I am from Rwanda in Africa, 5.4ft tall, fair in complexion, single, never married and presently i am residing here in Senegal as a result tragic incident of war which took place in my country some years past.
 
My late father Chief Dr Ibrahim Coumber was the managing director of true capitaliste cocoa industries Ltd in KIGALI the capital city of Rwanda. my country before the rebels attacked our house one early morning and killed my mother and my father in cold blood.
 
It was only me that is alive now and I managed to make my way to a near by country Senegal where i am leaving now as a refugee under the united nations care, and i am using the computer here to send these message to you. I am searching for true friendships, love and someone reliable, who i will share my feelings, experiences and lots more together, and i hope that you will be the true one for me that is why i write you so that we can get to know each other very well, i am ready to relocate to your country, so please kindly let me know if we can get closer to each other and see what the future meant for us.
 
I would like to know more about you. Your likes and dislikes, your hobbies and what you are doing presently. I will tell you more about myself in my next mail.
Attached here is my picture.
 
Hoping to hear from you soonest.
 
Yours Sincerely,
Nafi.

 

Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 01:21:00 -0700
from: nafi_coumber@yahoo.com
Subject: here is all about me, i need your help please
To: danina.1@hotmail.com

Dearest ,
I am more than happy in your reply to my mail. How are you this morning? How was your night? Hope fine. Mine is a little bit cold over here in Dakar Senegal. In this camp we are only allowed to go out from the camp only on Mondays and Fridays of the weeks. It’s just like one staying in the prison and i hope by Gods grace i will come out here soon. i don’t have any relatives now whom i can go to all my relatives ran away in the middle of the war, the only person i have now is (Rev.Joachim Diouf ) who is the pastor of the (St Peter’s Catholic Parish) here in the camp he has been very nice to me since i came here but i am not living with him rather i am leaving in the women’s hostel because the camp have two hostels, one for men the other for women.

The Pastors Tel number is (+221-76-493-35-37) if you call and tell him that you want to speak with me, he will send for me in the hostel. As a refugee here i don’t have any right or privilege to any thing be it money or whatever because it is against the law of this country.I want to go back to my studies because i only attended my first year before the traggic incident that lead to my being in this situation now took place, Please listen to this(it’s a secret, even the Reverend don’t know about it),i have my late father’s statement of account and his death certificate here with me which i will send to you latter, because when he was alive he deposited some amount of money in one of the leading bank which he used my name as the next of kin, the amount in question is $2.7(Two Million Seven Hundred Thousand US Dollars).So i will like you to help me transfer this money to your account and from it you will send some money for me to get my travelling documents and air ticket to come over to meet with you. I kept this secret to people in the camp here .So in the light of above i will like you to keep it to yourself and don’t tell it to anyone for i am afraid of loosing my life and the money if people gets to know about it. Remember i am giving you all this information due to the trust i deposed on you. I like honest and understanding people, truthful and a person of vision, truth and hardworking .My favourite language is English but our language is French but i speak English very fluently. Meanwhile i will like you to call me like i said i have a lotted to tell you. Have a nice day and think about me. Waiting to hear from you soonest.

 

Yours in love,

Nafi

 ============================================================

Ms. ANITA SAMEUL

Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:12:29 +0200
Subject: Hi
From: anitaasamuel2009@yahoo.gr

Hi

my regards to your family, I felt like communicating with you my name is Miss Anita Samuel, single and never married before, am 5.8fit tall, Average stature. It is my pleasure with due respect to cultivate a healthy friendship with you with due respect. I have great interest in travelling; my hubbies are reading and dancing.
 
Today I found your e-mail id in yahoo forward friend pages, then I took the opportunity to write to you as I will really want us to be good friends, and I will so much appreciate it if we can click together as one great friends. I will sent you my photo at least for you to see who is writing to you.

I will like you to contact me back, So that I will give you full explanation about myself, and reasons and purpose why I have contacted you.
 
Feel free to write me back .
 
Your’s Sincerely .
Anita

 

CONTINUATION OF Ms. ANITA SAMEUL

Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:36:42 +0000
From: anitaasamuel2009@yahoo.gr
Subject: All about ME/I Need Your Help
To: danina.1@hotmail.com

 Dear,
Thanks for your reply to my mail. I am writing this mail to you with tears and sorrow from my heart, Life has ways of changing your plans even if you are not ready for the change.
 

My name is Anita Samuel  Makki , my mother was Ethiopian while my father was a Liberian. I took after my mother in every physical structure. Educationally, I am Medical student, yet to complete my University program and I was only doing my second year when the unexpected happened and I lost my parents in the hands of Liberian Government Secret Police. From this point my life and my career got scatted until now that I have decided to pick my bits and pieces to move forward.
 

Actually the story of my father and Liberia Government will make a whole book but time will not permit me to say it all here but briefly I want to let you know that my father was a diamond stone dealer but the Government caused him of illegitimate diamond stone dealings with the rebels. The government seized his license, seal his personal bank accounts in Liberia and kidnapped my mother and which up till now; I do not know if she is dead or still a life somewhere. This is the story behind my living the country to Senegal where I am at present seeking refuge in the Church and living a low profile life in order to protect myself.
 

Please I decided to write you because I have no other alternative. Since after the death of my father in the hands of Liberian Government Secret Police I have been in a very big difficulty of how to safeguard the money that my father left for me in his foreign account before his death because the money is a huge amount of $7.8 million dollars presently in a bank. I am afraid I don’t know how and where to start about it. I have a dream of completing my education there in your country and invest all my late father’s funds there in your country.I will compensate you reasonably with 10% of the total money and 5% for any expenses that might come up in this transfer.
 

As regards the security of my life there is no other option left for me to seek for outside cooperation than through this medium and I would have loved to come to meet you but to be very honest with you, I do not have the financial means to sponsor myself at the moment. I proposed you to come if it is possible for you as well. Please if you can help me to stand for me as my foreign partner so that the bank can transfer this money to your account in your country so that after the transfer you will help me to come out of this place to come and meet with you in your country to start a better life with you.
 

I am appealing to you to be my guardian in this project to receive the fund into your account before we meet or if possible you can sponsor me to come over before the bank transfer the fund I will also like it, Please if you know that you can help me without  betraying me after the transfer of my money into your account in your country try to reply me urgently as I will explain more to you and we can discuss fully and God will always bless you for your help which I know you shall never regret.
 

I have been very much afraid to disclose this issue to strangers but I can not keep silence forever due my sufferings has gotten to an extent I can not even eat 3 square meals a day. Therefore the journey to survive is defendant on outside help so it would be extremely difficult to plan these arrangements alone without involving somebody who is business oriented. Conclusively I will like to know if you will be available to cooperate with me in this project. I hereby enclosed with my late father’s WILL and I have attached my photo here for you to know what I look like .I am open to any question.
 
Thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely.

Anita

 

RECEIVED ON SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2009

 

JOHNSON ENGINEERING COMPANY,

26, V-Island Road,
Ikeja Avenue,
Lagos-Nigeria.
 
Dear Friend,
 
I am Rev. David Johnson from Canada, I have been an international contractor
that
collects contract from Big Companies and countries, I got involved in one
contract in Nigeria which my payment was refused, I was down and almost lose
hope.
 
After 2 years of this contract, I later talked to God to assist me in getting
this money. I made a vow to benefit someone with the sum of Nine hundred
thousand United State Dollars (USD $900,000) draft payment if my payment could
be approved and to my surprise I was called upon by the Nigeria Government
sometimes last month that my contract file have been looked into and it is
ready
for payment. I never believed it until I was advised by my Pastor and later
moved
down to Nigeria and to my unbelievable surprise I was paid this money.

Due to my pledge to God I have agreed to show the person that i will be sending
the Nine hundred thousand United State Dollars (USD $900,000) through ballot
system on the internet which happened to be your email so you are lucky. What
you have to do now is to get in touch with my secretary Mr. Robert Dennis and
instruct him on how to send your USD $900,000 Bank draft to you.
 
BELOW IS THE CONTACT OF MY SECRETARY
 
Mr. Robert Dennis
Office Phone: +234-802-756-7656.
 
E-mail address: robertdennis@chatdd.com
 
Send to my secretary your contact address and telephone number, let him make
arrangement for the shipment of your draft to your doorstep and also you can
give him a call to confirm your address. What I want you to believe now is that
this is the opportunity which God have promised you this year so it is better
you have it in time before it goes again from you so contact my secretary in
time. And for your information presently I am in the United Kingdom for another
contract so I want you to go into prayer with me for the success of this
contract.
 
With Best Regards,
Rev. David Johnson.

 

This email response was from one of my baits to catch up WITH A SCHEMER!!

 

Get back to me with your preferred option of payment!!!??????

From:

Robert Dennis (robertdennis@chatdd.com)

Sent:

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 8:33:44 AM

To:

danina.1@hotmail.com

Personal Assistance and Secretary To
Rev. David Johnson
JOHNSON ENGINEERING COMPANY,
26, V-Island Road,
Ikeja Avenue,
Lagos-Nigeria.
Office Phone  : +234-802-756-7656

Thanks for your email response; I have been expecting you to contact me since my boss Rev. David Johnson kept a sum of USD $900,000 under my care before he travelled out of the country with his partner for business project. I am Mr Robert Dennis, his secretary and also his Personal Assistance. He has left instructions for me to assist you on how your funds will get to you so you can count on me for that.

It might interest you to know that all arrangements has already been concluded in regards to the immediate disbursement of your fund to you accordingly. Without wasting much of time, it is my pleasure to notify you on the payment schedule as I have (4) options in disbursing your funds to you. It is then left for you to choose the best option that suites you accordingly. The options are as follows:

1. Through an International Diplomatic courier service, this way your fund will be officially packaged in a consignment and delivered to your door-step by a Certified Diplomat. Note that this option will cost you a sum of $150. This fee is meant for the visa arrangement and flight expenses of the Diplomat that is responsible for the delivery of the CONSIGNMENT BOX to you.

2. Through Telegraphic transfer, this way your fund will be wired directly into your nominated Bank account as designated and means your banking information will be needed so as to enable the foreign remittance director start processing your payment file prior to subsequent release of your fund into your Bank account without any further delay. Note that this option Will Cost you a sum of $220 and this payment is meant for the Cost of Transfer (COT) of your fund into your account as well as the mailing fee of the needed documents to you.
3. Through a Certified bank draft which will be delivered to your door-step by an approved courier service. This way your full contact address will be needed for successful delivery of your Certified Bank draft to you as designated. This option Will Cost you a sum of $100 and this fee is meant for the delivery charges of the bank draft to you but note that the bank draft will take 48 hours to clear off the bank.

4. Through an (ATM CARD), this way your full contact address, including your banking information will be needed so as to enable the foreign remittance director start processing your payment file prior to subsequent release of your fund/ATM Card to your door-step without any further delay. This Will Cost you a sum of $110. This fee is meant for the preparation of the ATM Card and also for the delivery charges of your ATM Card to you. All the needed information will be provided to you including the pin code of the ATM Card and you will have access to withdraw at least $100,000 daily from the ATM Card.

You are further advised to choose from the above listed options on the mode which you wish to receive your funds with and upon receipt of your response; I will start taking the next necessary procedural steps prior to the routing of your funds to you accordingly. Also be informed that all the necessary documentations evidencing this project will be forwarded to you for your documentation and reference as we proceed..

Thank you once again for your anticipated cooperation in advance while i await your urgent response.

Congratulations in advance!!!

Warmest Regards,
Mr. Robert Dennis

 

 

Thanks for reading I trust that the information would have been valuable to someone, if you have any comments check my bio for email address

 

Written by: Abigail Chandler

Date: 16/09/09