By Nasratu Kargbo
Poverty Reduction Campaigner for Africa, Professor Frederick W. Kwoba has in a position paper condemned the way Traditional Privatization Programme (TPP) is done. Titled “War on Poverty” and released at the Freetown City Hall during the Economic Association of Sierra Leone’s 1st annual conference, Kwoba stated that privatizing the people’s income generating assets is not good for the country.
He stated: “It is this kind of traditional privatization that has impeded Africa’s efforts to create vibrant stock markets as the fulcrum for a robust private sector geared towards wealth creation”.
He said Shared Ownership of National Income-Generating Assets (SONIGA) can be a solution to poverty reduction in Sierra Leone and Africa as a whole, proffering shared- asset ownership as a solution to mitigating poverty.
He said the country can amass wealth through the stock exchange and that ordinary Sierra Leoneans can own stocks and shares in home-grown companies trading on the exchange. He argued this will create “increasing wealth for themselves in the process”. He drew reference to Warren Buffet being the second richest man in the world not because he owns a gadget producing company, but because he owns shares in different companies. He added that this can make ordinary Sierra Leoneans create wealth not by owning a company, but by “owning shares in high-yielding income-generating permanent assets like Sierra Tel, EDSA, SLPMC to name but a few”.
“We have to go through the pangs of poverty reduction with an innovative program such as SONIGA” he says.
He recommended it would be of essence to think outside the box in order to boost the Sierra Leone Stock Exchange (SLSE), noting that in 2009 the SLSE was launched, but has only one company listed, with virtually no turnover of stock over the years. Kwoba said business can only boom and succeed if the company is based on “public/shared ownership” as stated by SONIGA.
He stated that in developing countries, GDP growth does not eradicate poverty, but the eradication of poverty that will create GDP growth. He said evidence shows that economic growth alone does not improve the living standard of the majority, and ordinary people do not feel the impact of the “so called growth” in their daily lives. Kwoba, solicited what he called an African spirit of inclusiveness.
Copyright © Politico Online 08/12/21
