Africa’s persistent underdevelopment is not accidental but the result of deliberate strategies by global financial institutions, Dr. Gamel Nasser Adam told participants at the opening of the 80th anniversary of the Fifth Pan-African Congress on Tuesday, November 18.
Speaking on “Africa’s underdevelopment: from Colonialism to Neo-Colonialism,” Dr. Adam criticized international financial institutions for perpetuating economic inequality across the continent.
“Empires. And, you know, they started preaching this idea of open door policies. And through their instrumentality, they established the IMF and the World Bank, which are today’s, you know, imperialism’s handmaidens,” he said.
He explained that these institutions deliberately block industrialization and limit Africa to the production of raw materials. “Just stick to the production of raw materials and we’ll take care of the rest,” Dr. Adam stated.
The U.S. and European economic dominance, he argued, comes at Africa’s expense. “Interest rates payments by African countries to Western financial institutions are eight times higher than those paid, for example, by Germany. And African countries pay four times interest rates… than what the United States pays for its debts.”
Organized by the Accra-based Pan-African Progressive Front (PPF), the conference emphasized reparations and economic justice. Delegates discussed a single African reparations fund, loan waivers, and customs duties on goods from former colonizers as immediate steps toward redressing historical and ongoing exploitation.