Africa must be wary of the rhetoric of international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, which alienate its economic sovereignty, Abdoulaye Nabaloum, founder of the association Actions for the Sovereignty of Peoples (ASP), told Sputnik Africa.
“The Bretton Woods mechanisms have kept Africa in a difficult situation, a situation of precariousness that today fuels all the tensions […] We have understood that there are two languages: the language of truth about our natural resources and the language of lies that wants to tell us that we are poor states and that we must be on the perfusion of the international financial system,” he explains.
As Nabaloum pointed out, some Western players wanted to manipulate international financial instruments in order to sanction Russia, which increased mistrust towards them.
The BRICS Alternative
The inability of international financial institutions to adapt to African realities is not inevitable, however, as alternatives have begun to emerge. The BRICS, in particular, have a more multipolar vision that could appeal to the global South, notes the pan-African activist.
“It is a very good thing to have thought of this multipolarism […] The BRICS will have to diagnose what went wrong with the Bretton Woods institutions in order to promote development first,” Nabaloum said.
In particular, the possible introduction of a common currency for the BRICS could break the dominance of the dollar. The group’s work to find an alternative to the SWIFT banking system should also be closely monitored, Nabaloum stressed.
According to the activist, this move towards a multipolar world could “drastically improve the economic and financial situation of African countries”.