This edition of AfricanPod is about a free lesson for Africa from the British Prime Minister, David Cameron. 

The United Kingdom has a complex.

It is geographically part of Europe but has never quite felt comfortable being fully immersed in the European Union. The British find the idea of being dictated to by EU bureaucrats in Brussels to be deeply offensive. As a result, agitation for self-definition and self-determination has been growing for decades. 

The clearest sign of Britain’s disdain for European supremacy over its national affairs is that the United Kingdom decided to keep its beloved Pounds Sterling as the national currency, rather than adopt the Euro, currently used by about 20 nations across Europe.

Nearly two decades into the 21st century, British Prime Minister David Cameron has taken the fight to the Europe, threatening to leave the Union unless all the countries making up the Union agree to see the UK as having a special status.

David Cameron’s success depended on leaders of 27 countries in Europe unanimously accepting unprecedented demands that violate EU’s principles.

The demands include:

* a declaration that the Euro currency is not the only official currency in Europe, that the Pound Sterling has a special place

* that Brussels makes an explicit statement that Britain will be kept out of any move towards a European superstate

* that Britain is allowed to unilaterally reclaim power from Brussels on foreign policy, trade and finance

So facing strong and influential leaders like Angela Merkel of Germany and French President François Hollande, David Cameron spent more than 24 hours negotiating with extreme brinkmanship. He threatened what has been called Brexit – or British exit from the European Union.

Europe buckled, and Cameron got what he wanted for Britain.

As successful as David Cameron’s venture against Europe was, some in Britain want to go even further by voting in June 2016 to remove Britain out of the EU altogether. Maybe David Cameron is wrong, but that is beside the point.

Here is the point: David Cameron’s stance is a lesson, or even lessons for Africa. Some or those lessons are:

* You must not wait for others to build a bridge for you

* You must thoughtfully make your own case

* Take a stand for yourself, because no one will do it for you

* Define yourself – don’t wait for others to define you

Regardless of the ultimate outcome of the British argument with the European Union and results of the referendum in June 2016, there is ample proof that the UK wants to keep its destiny in its own hands.

The same cannot be said of African leaders.

They have carved a solid image of being incompetent and never finding the path of success similar to leaders in Europe, America and Asia.

Across the length and breadth of the African continent, leaders in gleeful ignorance shamelessly look up to the rest of the world for endless assistance.

They have no idea how to build bridges into the future. They have rather practiced the art of begging, and perfected it.

Now, their ability to survive depends on the extent to which they can beg. They have allowed themselves to be defined directly and indirectly as a charity case.

The leaders lack the ability to make their case as a continent that is mature enough to feed itself, resolve its own various issues in handling trade negotiations, security and economic policy.

Of course, centuries of colonialism and its sad consequences are undeniable. But also undeniable is the real possibility of using the pains of the past as a reason to build a different reality and progressively blot out the mental shackles of the past.

But many who call themselves leaders in Africa have allowed a vict...

Welcome to this episode of AfricanPod, where we meet a Politician who says most African Politicians are incompetent,

greedy and selfish. 

Kofi Wayo from Ghana is the politician. He differentiates himself by the fact that he has spent most of his life in the United States and became self-sufficient by making a lot of money as an International business man.

He attacks other politicians like no other and claims common sense is the one thing lacking among African leaders.

As fresh as this interview sounds, it was conducted in December 2001. That is 15 years years ago.

Perhaps the one thing you can take away from this interview is that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

* * *

I was speaking there to Kofi Wayo, who charges that African leaders hide their incompetence behind high level, but meaningless language. That was in December 2001, fifteen long years ago. My name is Phillip Nyakpo.

For more on the good news and bad news about Africa, subscribe free to the AfricanPod on YouTube.  

AfricanPod is also available on iTunes Podcast andTune-In Radio, all free on the Internet. Follow us on Twitter, @AfricanPod You can contact AfricanPod by going to our website, AfricanPod.com. My name is Phillip Nyakpo, and thanks for listening.

This edition of AfricanPod is a fascinating conversation with a free-spirited Novelist who writes with authentic African themes. 

My name is Phillip Nyakpo your host, and we are about to meet T. M. Clark the Novelist, born in Zimbabwe with the experience of living in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Now she lives in Australia from where she writes with African themes, straight from the heart.

It is not often that you meet a Writer who writes a novel with a mixture of modern life and deep rooted stories from Africa, told with an uncommon passion.

Tina Marie Clark, or T. M. Clark is that Novelist with a unique experience, perspective and passion which she draws on to write.

Her latest book, Tears of The Cheetah released in late 2015 is described by one reviewer as is “a thriller and the story of a fierce fight to save Africa’s threatened wildlife,” a suspenseful journey into the dark world of African game poaching.

From her home in the Australian State of Queensland, T. M. Clark spoke to AfricanPod about her life, what she has learned living on three continents as well as what she lives for. First, she told me about her early memories of Africa, a continent she still calls home.

For more on the good news and bad news about Africa, subscribe free to the AfricanPod on YouTube.  

AfricanPod is also available on iTunes Podcast and Tune-In Radio, all free on the Internet. Follow us on Twitter, @AfricanPod You can contact AfricanPod by going to our website, AfricanPod.com. My name is Phillip Nyakpo, and thanks for listening.

On AfricanPod today, a peculiar pain known only to those who are running a business. 

My name is Phillip Nyakpo, and our guest on AfricanPod is a Pharmacist and Business Owner who knows the aggravations of being in business. 

He will tell us about his experience trying establish a business in Africa, the incredible challenge he faced and what it takes to prevail.

It is the good news, and the bad news about Africa, here on AfricanPod.

My guest is the Managing Director of Kinapharma Group of Companies, and I interviewed him shortly after he was declared Marketing Man of the year.

And listen to this – that was in the year 2004 – about 12 years ago, and it was subsequently broadcast on Skyy TV in Ghana.

So why is the interview relevant today?

Because not much has changed regarding the unique challenges faced by Entrepreneurs like him who employ hundreds of people.

They are often frustrated by hostile business environment, a banking system that mostly fleece hardworking people as well as mindless government regulations and sheer lack of support.

Then there is the pervasive drunken and blinding politics that undermines business.

The interview has references to currency valuations, as well as situational facts that reflects the realities on the ground a decade ago. These of course should be taken in the appropriate context.

At the time of the interview, Kofi Nsiah-Poku had been running his group of companies for 15 years. I started by asking him to reflect on his journey as an Entrepreneur:

[INTERVIEW]

The more things change, the more often they remain the same. In may cases, they become worse than before. But then there are a few, who in spite of it all still make a difference. My guest, the Managing Director of Kinapharma Group of Companies, Kofi Nsiah-Poku, made a difference.

For more on the good news and bad news about Africa, subscribe to the AfricanPod on iTunes Podcast.  On YouTube, search for AfricanPod.

Follow us on Twitter, @AfricanPod

AfricanPod is available on Google’s Android Podcast. Also on Tune-In Radio, just search for AfricanPod and you can listen for free. 

Contact AfricanPod by going to our website, AfricanPod.com

AfricanPod is everywhere on the Internet, and you can’t miss it.

My name is Phillip Nyakpo, and thanks for listening.

“You cannot get out of the way of things you cannot see coming towards you” – the words of American Futurist, R. Buckminster Fuller. This means you can dodge a projectile coming in your direction – if you can see it coming.

So will you like to know what to expect in 2016?

Well, we are going to do something dangerous on AfricanPod in this episode. We are going to make predictions for 2016.

I am Phillip Nyakpo, this is AfricanPod, the good news and the bad news about Africa.

We are determined to do something dangerous on AfricanPod to start 2016.

We want to make predictions for the year.

The problem is, only fools try to predict the future with any level of certainty.

Events over the past year alone shows that most economists have been dead wrong on predictions.

So in 12 months from now, come back and listen to this episode once again and decide how accurate our prediction is, because there is very little good news, and a lot of bad news.

But let’s play it safe.

Instead of making predictions for 2016, let us say we are making some intelligent extrapolations for the year 2016:

So here we go:

At the very least, the year 2016 is going to be the start of an unprecedented sharp global economic decline which will be felt across all six continents including Africa.

The economy of many countries will remain both fragile and volatile.

Selfish politicians will campaign vigorously to be elected to office and plunder the wealth of nations.

There will be squabbles over elections and election results, because elections are not going to be about the welfare of people – but about satisfying the greed of many people wrongly and tragically called leaders.

The unsuspecting masses will be given grandiose promises and urged to allow tricksters to get into office.

Governments will be stunned by slumping energy and commodity prices, resulting in deeper deficits particularly for African countries.

The evidence is already popping up around the world and countries that have not known the pain of deficits are experiencing the shock. An example is Saudi Arabia which recently announced that they spent more than 90 billion dollars that they didn’t have, and that everyone will have to pay extra for petroleum to address the unexpected shortfall.

For a country that has been the world’s leading exporter of petroleum for decades, it is as if the sky is about to fall.

Similar shocks will be felt in African countries with significant reliance on mining and energy, and they include Nigeria, Angola, Ghana and South Africa. In the case of South Africa, the signs are already in the open as its currency, the Rand, struggles to retain value.

As the sky seems to fall over Africa in 2016, the International Monetary Fund will order countries on the continent to cut back public expenditure and retrench workers across the continent.

Millions of people will be adversely affected by this, and they will feel the immediate effect in their household budget.

Multi-national companies across the world, especially in mining and manufacturing and energy will lay off hundreds of thousands of workers due to the deflationary pressures on commodity prices. This will be exacerbated by cheap automation made possible by smarter and relatively inexpensive  software.

Only a dozen robots will be required replace thousands of workers over a short period of time while the sky is falling.

Currencies around the world are going to be hammered, all currencies in fact. It will be a race to the bottom, and some will go down faster than others.

Purchasing power of paper currencies held by million will evaporate.

Or more accurately, purchasing power will be transferred from those with little to those who have more. Unchangeably, the rich will get richer, and the poor will get poorer.

Zimbabwe takes sides with China, choosing the Chinese Yuan currency, and ditching the US dollar as its official currency. In the game of global dominance, Zimbabwe indeed goes to China – right here, on AfricanPod, the good news and the bad news about Africa, and I am your presenter, Phillip Nyakpo.

 

First, here is a quiz: how many Billionaires did Zimbabwe produce between the years 2000 and 2009?

The answer is coming up shortly, but here is the context: in the late 1990s to 2009, Zimbabwe was drowning in a deluge of hyper-inflation where the price of goods and services was rising by the hour.

The true value the Zimbabwean Dollar was a moving target, going down rapidly to zero. Within a one year period, the country printed Zimbabwean dollar denominations ranging from 10 to 100 billion.

As unreal as it sounds, the largest denomination of a Zimbabwean banknote was One Hundred Trillion Dollars.

That is “Trillion” with a T – “T” as in “Tango.”

The higher the denominations printed, the less the currency could buy. Purchasing power of the Zimbabwean currency practically disappeared, and it happened so fast that in 2009, the currency became completely useless. The Zimbabwean government actually devalued paper itself by printing on it.

This left more than 12 million people hanging onto 100 billion Zimbabwean Dollar notes. Zimbabweans subsequently came to be called the Hungry and poor Billionaires of Africa.

So back to the quiz: how many Billionaires did Zimbabwe produce between the year 2000 and 2009?

You got it.

They produced more than 12 million Billionaires – the entire population of Zimbabwe, and their “billion dollars” could not buy even a loaf of bread.

Somehow, Zimbabwean found a kind of reset button.

When they pressed it, the result was that the Zimbabwean Dollar was abolished and swiftly replaced by the United States Dollar. Yes, the United States Dollar became the official currency of the Zimbabwe.

However other currencies are also in circulation, and these include the South African Rand, British Pounds Sterling, and the Australian Dollar.

It is a unique multi-currency system with the US Dollar right on top of the pile.

But now, Zimbabwe says it will embrace a completely new currency to replace the US Dollar.

That currency just happens to be the Chinese Yuan.

The Yuan itself made history on the last day of November 2015, when the IMF recognised it as a Global Reserve Currency, placing it in the same league as the US Dollar, along with a handful of other influential currencies.

The Yuan’s new status is expected to take some shine off the US Dollar, especially when the whole arrangement goes into full force in October 2016.

You can find details of story on AfricanPod, Episode 6.

So the announcement by Zimbabwe to replace the US Dollar with the Yuan as its official currency is not an accident. It is part of an on-going economic romance between China and Zimbabwe.

It is all about money, as usual.

Zimbabwe owes China about 40 million US Dollars.

Then just a few weeks ago, the Chinese President Xi Jinping stopped over in Zimbabwe to meet his 91 year old counterpart, Robert Mugabe. It was a rare visit by a world leader, following Zimbabwe’s isolation by Europe and America and other western nations in connection with Zimbabwe’s human rights record under Robert Mugabe.

During the stop-over, Xi Jinping whispered in Robert Mugabe’s ear that he is willing to write off Zimbabwe’s debt in exchange for a small favour.

It was not a bad deal, especially for China.

China will cancel a paltry $40 million dollars’ worth of Zimbabwe’s debt,  while Zimbabwe in return adopts the Yuan as its official currency.

It was like a match made in Beijing.

Sure enough, Xi Jinping’s plane hardly lifted off Harare’s Airport tarmac when Mugabe ordered the announcement t...

In this episode of AfricanPod, we take a look at one of the most powerful elements of communication known to the human race. My guest is a US-based African Doctor, and he has written a book about it.

All over the world and across every culture, symbols represent a powerful element in communication.

In the West African nation, Ghana, the Ashantis, (also called the Akans) developed a set of unique symbols called Adinkra, and as can be expected, they retain deep cultural meanings that words alone cannot convey.

From the United States, a Medical Doctor, who is originally from Ghana has just published a book about the Adinkra Symbols, explaining their hidden meaning at different levels.

More than just explaining the hidden meaning, Dr Charles Korankye has created a new Alphabet system, using only the Adinkra Symbols.

It is all so intriguing – so on the line to the US State of Wisconsin, I asked Dr Charles Korankye to tell me more about his new book, why he wrote it and the potential benefits.

Doctor Charles Korankye’s new book about the hidden meaning of Adinkra Symbols from West Africa is fascinating, and more than that, he has invented a unique Alphabet system, using only the Adinkra symbols.

For more on the good news and bad news about Africa, subscribe to the AfricanPod on iTunes Podcast, on YouTube, search for AfricanPod, and also on our website, www.AfricanPod.com

Follow us on Twitter, @africanpod

AfricanPod is now available on Google’s Android Podcast.

My name is Phillip Nyakpo, and thanks for listening.

Welcome to AfricanPod, and in this episode, we look at the relentless march of China towards global supremacy, this time with a newly-empowered arsenal – its currency, the Yuan, also called Renminbi.

It is a big topic because the International Monetary Fund has now recognised the Yuan as a Global Reserve Currency. Africa, on the other hand retains the top medal in mediocrity, at least when it comes to currency, finance and economics.

So its Hello Africa, here comes China! And the question is do African leaders even understand what has just happened? Find out, right here on the AfricanPod – the good news and the bad news about Africa.

On the last day of November 2015, the International Monetary Fund made an earth-shattering announcement: China’s currency, the Yuan has been approved to join the elite group of global reserve currencies.

This means, China will be in a position to activate the same leverage the United States and its paper currency, the Dollar has enjoyed for about four decades.

Other currencies that enjoy reserve status include the Swiss Francs, the Euro, British Pounds Sterling, the Japanese Yen, the Australian Dollar and the Canadian Dollar.

It is important to point that the United States Dollar takes the Lion’s share – the Leviathan’s share of the privilege that comes with being the source of global reserve currency, with more than 60% of World Trade settled in US Dollars.

So what privilege comes with being a global reserve currency?

It is not a question asked very often, and the answer is very rare. Even where you hear the it is often only as clear as mud, because it is presented in economic and financial jargons that barely one in a million people understand.

So let’s attempt to get some clarity:

A reserve currency is used in international transactions – or paying for goods and services around the globe. This means, the person or persons who print that currency have enormous financial advantage, because they can purchase goods and services cheaply. They can access funds cheaply. The cost of getting goods and services for the one who prints the currency is exactly what it costs to print the paper.

Since the world operates on exchange of goods and services – a situation described as trade, the one who gets the cheapest money on the scale of printing in exchange for goods and services is the one who laughs all the way to be bank.

If you had a choice which one will you choose – the ability to print money and exchange it for whatever you want or sweat all day long for what you need?

Don’t get this wrong – it is very complicated, but the above is the simplest way to put it in order to begin to understand the advanced circus that the global monetary system is.

The International Monetary Fund presides over the system and allows some to print paper in exchange for very valuable goods and services.

It also allows the same people to print what is called money, lend it and collect interest on it. Imagine collecting dividends on something that costs you almost nothing to print.

It is the sweetest deal on planet Earth, and it takes the smartest and the most powerful people to own the process the keeps it in the hands of the few.

Invariably, this means Africans are not among the smartest and the most powerful people as far as economics and finance is concerned.

Africans, in this sense are deeply ignorant of the mechanisms that result in the creation of currency – or what is erroneously called money.

It explains why no African currency forms part of the global reserve currency. Perhaps, at a basic level, it is the reason why the continent has no common currency like the Euro. Remember the Euro? Once invented, it quickly found its place on the global reserve currency.

China understood the game of currencies and worked very hard to be admitted...

On the AfricanPod today, a young man from Africa decides to stop talking and rather act and show how and why it is possible to feed Ghana and Africa with simple modern methods of Farming. 

My name is Phillip Nyakpo, and AfricanPod is about the good news and the bad news about Africa.

One of the enduring images of Africa around the world are those of malnourished, hungry and helpless children. Those images evoke a lot of passionate discussion, but not a lot of action

Of course, the images of hungry children from Africa do not exactly represent the overwhelming majority of children in Africa – but Africa does have a challenge in feeding itself.

So having heard all the endless talk about what needs to be done, Justice Baidoo, from Ghana decided to take action and set an example.

He built an artefact.

Justice Baidoo’s artefact is a multipurpose Farm in Ghana’s Western Region, and he calls it Bluefields Farms.

Before building Bluefields Farms, Justice spent some years in Journalism and later travelled to the United Kingdom to study advanced Journalism. He returned with a passion to use modern farming as a tool to uplift his community.

Justice Baidoo is the guest on this episode of AfricanPod, and he describes his mission to teach by example that it is possible for Ghanaians and Africans to feed themselves.

For more on the good news and bad news about Africa, subscribe to the AfricanPod on iTunes Podcast, on Youtube, search for AfricanPod, and also on our website, AfricanPod.com.

AfricanPod will also be available soon on Google’s Android Podcast.

In this episode of AfricanPod, we take a look at Africa and Australia – the collaboration of two continents.

These two continents that are so far apart, and challenges in collaboration is a significant issue. These include a range of cultural, political and social gaps that needs bridging.

The challenges remain, but progress has also been made by many individuals and organizations. One individual that has made a difference is Camilla Coffey.

Camilla is associated with the New South Wales chapter of the Australia Africa Business Council, and has considerable experience in bringing African and Australian businesses together.  She has also travelled around Africa over the last decade.

Among other talents, Camilla Coffey specialises in connecting people and promoting ethical business development in Africa.

I spoke to Camilla on the phone to Sydney, where she shares her experience.

Here are some quotes from the interview:

“It is not all war, and famine and disease…”

“Africans want to thrive, and want to do well, and do well with so little”

“You can pass through a township (in Africa) and see someone’s washing on the line and their white will be the whitest white you’ve ever seen…   the most beautifully clean clothing – and you think how has he done it? I can’t get my clothing that good.”

“I get a buzz out of seeing people making shoes out of disused tyres”

“You must see an African sunset”

“There is an image problem for Australians when they think about Africa”

“There is a lot of competition for Africa against Asia and Latin America”

“There is a challenge for African businesses to grow large enough to get onto a Stock Market before they can get foreign funding and interest from Australians”