Banks can make or break a nation
By Victor Angula |
Namibia has turned 36 years as a free and independent nation. That is to say, the capital city Windhoek, has been run and controlled by people of Namibia.
The people of Namibia (the Namibians) make the country’s laws in the parliament and together with the individuals at State House they decide what to do with the resources of Namibia.
That is political freedom.
But still Namibia is not anywhere closer to achieving economic freedom. Had it not been for the generous social safety net provided by state grants, such as old age grants, orphans and vulnerable kids grants, disability grants, war veteran grants, Harambee food banks, and GIPF benefits to spouses and dependants of state-owned institutions employees, surely Namibia would be one of the poorest countries on earth – that is to say, 90% of Namibia’s population would be starving everyday.
What I am saying is that if you took away the monthly grants provided by the government and GIPF, almost all people in this country would be suffering from hunger and other acute economic difficulties.
This is despite the fact that Namibia is rich in terms of natural resources.
This means that, although Namibians are running and controlling their country’s capital city, they are not running and controlling their country’s capital.
Capital (which is the economy) is run and controlled by others who are not Namibians. If they are Namibians they are only Namibian on paper.
In reality Namibia is a broken nation. If the majority of the population lives on the margins of the economy, living in shacks and in villages where houses are made out of sticks and grass, and surviving on government grants, despite the fact that this is one of the richest countries on earth, then this is a broken nation indeed.
And I have learned that a country’s banking sector is one sector which can either make or break a nation.
If you look at Namibia’s banking sector you can see that this sector (which handles the country’s capital) is run and controlled by people who one would say perhaps they are not Namibians.
Windhoek is of course the capital city of Namibia. The term “capital city” came from the fact that politicians all across the world, as soon as their countries became independent or free from another state or from an empire, decided to live in and run their country from the city which is where the country’s banks are.
This city, usually the main city of the country, became known as the capital city because the country’s money and other resources (capital/economy) are controlled from this city.
Successful countries became successful because through democratic governance and people’s representatives in parliament and at State House, the people got to run and own their country’s capital. The country’s banks became the heartbeat of the nation since you can’t separate politics from the economy.
Here with Namibia though, the people (through their elected representatives) are sitting in parliaments and running around the country with State House resources yet they are unable to own their country’s economy. They are in the capital city, but the capital of the country is far away from the people.
As a result, instead of making the nation great, the banks are breaking the nation.
This is because the banks are still detached from the Namibian society. The Namibian banks are still not the heartbeat of the nation.
Despite making record-breaking profits every year, the banks are making these profits on the back of an unemployed population, a population that is becoming poorer every day and surviving on state grants.
(I will be writing a series of educational articles on the banking and financial sectors of Namibia, explaining how and why Namibia’s economy is the way it is.)
– Victor Angula is the editor of Omutumwa News Online. victorangula@yahoo.com
