Este é um texto, supostamente de um empresário negro do Quenia; não se conhece o
protagonista, boa ou má pessoa, honesto ou desonesto, de direita ou esquerda,
religioso ou não; mas de facto tem muitas verdades. Duro!
DOING BUSINESS IN AFRICA & THE DEVELOPMENT
OF AFRICA
I run a manufacturing business and a trading
business.
The biggest challenge in my manufacturing
business is not power, or infrastructure, the biggest challenge is getting
honest staff.
Everyone we hire appears to be on a mission to
steal as much as possible, Inflated invoices, recording less than the actual
number of units produced.
The worst part of it all is that all the fraud
we have uncovered is not done by a single person, it's usually many staff who
collude with each other, from production, to sales, to finance, even top
management.
There was a year I overhauled management 3
times in a year.
But I have found a solution. I now use Indian
expatriate management. So competent, so honest and so straightforward.
I thought they were expensive at first with all
the visa fees, accommodation, house staff, but now that losses due to staff
theft have been reduced to a minimum, and efficiency increased, the Indian
management has turned out to be cheaper than the previous African management.
Now, all sensitive positions involving money go
to Indians. Africans are only allowed in non-sensitive positions.
I used to criticize indigenous African companies
like the Dangote Group that hire so many Indians when there are many unemployed
Africans, but now, I understand their painful decision.
My biggest challenge in the trading business is
the same, getting honest staff. The form of trading occurs in the open market,
and involves staff having access to huge sums of money running into a few
millions.
I know how much I pay to security companies to
provide escorts for the staff, not to prevent robbery, but to ensure that the
staff go straight to the bank to deposit the money after the day's sales and
not disappear with my money.
This money spent on security companies is even
enough to be declared as profit. We have to spend on CCTV, biometric scanners
and other things that wouldn't be needed if staff weren't looking for the
slightest opportunity to steal.
It got so bad at a point that my main criteria
for employing staff was no longer competency or certificates, but honesty.
At least, competency and skills can be learnt,
but once you are dishonest, you are dishonest.
We always complain of the economy and how there
are no jobs. I know people abroad who would have loved to set up job creating
businesses in Africa, but they cannot because they cannot get any trustworthy
person to run it.
I know people in Africa with so much money,
they want to start factories and other job-creating businesses, but they cannot
because they are occupied elsewhere and cannot get any trustworthy person to
run the business. So instead of investing in the real sector and creating jobs,
they will just buy treasury bills, while the thieves are shouting no jobs and
food.
I bet, large African organizations like Dangote
can set up shop in every African country and create millions of jobs, but I bet
corruption and dishonesty at the top government echelons is what is preventing
them from helping Africa.
Many big businesses would have been born in
Africa if we could engage in partnerships, but we cannot because you cannot
trust anyone.
This is one advantage the Indians and Lebanese
have over us in Africa. They can pull resources together and do mega-business,
unlike Africans. That only one person must do everything since we can't
partner, we end up with small, tiny businesses. Even siblings can manage a
business together. A case in point are the dying or dead super stores in East
Africa that would have become the Walmart’s or ... of Africa.
Start a poultry farm and they will be stealing
your eggs. Some will even go ahead to be killing the chickens so that they will
be allowed to take them home.
Start an entertainment/viewing/game centre and
they will be pocketing your money. On the days you are around at the business,
the money realized will be 10 times of the money realized when you're not
around. Because they are eating your money and eating their future.
Buy and lease out a vehicle to a driver to use
and watch as he will finish you.
Start a restaurant, the same thing will happen.
More than half of the total food ingredients will end up in their personal
kitchens.
Even attendants in ordinary provisions shop, or
kiosks will find a way to steal from the small investors.
You will see them quote their evil, wicked
saying "That a person eats where they work."
Just imagine, justifying theft at work, killing
their own jobs and the development of Africa.
And you will see these people point their
crooked fingers at politicians when they are not any different.
I usually say the reason most Africans have not
stolen billions of government money, is simply because of lack of opportunity.
The few honest Africans, both in government and
the private sector, are looked upon as stupid.
You are not stupid. You are what Africa
desperately and painfully needs.
How shall we develop when those who are
supposed to supervise and manage shops, kiosks, supermarkets, factories,
schools, hospitals, water works, road construction, street cleaning, power
plants, bus fleets, parking collections, building constructions, etc, etc are
the ones who plot to steal from the local small investors, local big investors,
governments, and foreign investors?
How shall we develop when our school managers
are the ones who plot to steal school provisions, school fees and school food,
etc?
How shall we develop when our hospital managers
are the ones who plot to steal medicines, beds, sheets, blankets, food,
consultation fees, etc?
How? How? Cry our beloved continent.
How shall we develop when those public
employees charged with ensuring and enforcing standards and curbing cost
estimates are the ones plotting with local and foreign contractors to inflate
costs and cut works standards to steal public money for personal gain?
On every level, Africans are the problem of
Africa.
In my assessment, the simple reason, that can
be replicated continent wide, as to why Rwanda is a rising star of Africa is
because Rwandese and development partners and foreign investors know that the
top management of the country cannot accept dishonesty in both public and
private service.
So whatever money they generate internally or
get through DFI actually goes into doing what it's supposed to do and the
production and building standards are strictly followed. And the employees both
in government and the private sector know that there is a big price to pay for
dishonesty and corruption.
Tanzania was following suite. Now we have lost
President Magufuli. We do not know how things will go.
Imagine 54 Kagames heading African countries?
Even the so-called Western world and the
Eastern world would not want that because we would be a first world within 10 years.
We Africans must wake up and rethink Africa.
Africans in all work positions ranging from
sweeper to artisan to shop attendant to store attendant to driver to tea or
coffee or flower picker to purchasing officer to chief to governor to nurse to
doctor to cook to painter to builder to senator to minister to MCA to school
head to bus conductor to electric meter reader to house help to president to
security guards to the police to the military personnel to fishermen, to CEO
etc, etc, must get honest for the sake of Mother Africa.
By being dishonest, we are raping Mother
Africa. The foreign elements know our dishonesty and they thus come to Africa
steal our vast natural resources with abandon and give a few breadcrumbs to
those Africans charged with managing our countries to the detriment of our
development and self-sufficiency.
Who will save us from us? I implore every African of any colour, any
religion, any gender, any age to think of Africa and to think of African
posterity.
Africa can rise again. Let Africa rise. Rise up
and be counted as a people.”