Editor,

RE: "Biggest basic income experiment slated for East Africa” (The New Times, February 9, 2017).

I would like to know how much of the headline figure presented as ‘aid’ in fact goes to overhead costs to administer that alleged ‘aid’.

How much of it is tied to procurement for equipment, services and exorbitantly paid consultants from the ‘donor’ when better and less costly alternatives could have been obtained locally or from elsewhere?

And, most importantly, how does such ‘aid’ get used to induce our countries to adopt policies and practices that are in reality inimical to our interests?

If you took all these factors into account for full-cost analysis, I have no doubt you would in fact find that ‘aid’ is in reality much more costly than we realise.

There are always hidden costs to dependence - there is truly never a free lunch.

Editor,

RE: "Biggest basic income experiment slated for East Africa” (The New Times, February 9, 2017).

I would like to know how much of the headline figure presented as ‘aid’ in fact goes to overhead costs to administer that alleged ‘aid’.

How much of it is tied to procurement for equipment, services and exorbitantly paid consultants from the ‘donor’ when better and less costly alternatives could have been obtained locally or from elsewhere?

And, most importantly, how does such ‘aid’ get used to induce our countries to adopt policies and practices that are in reality inimical to our interests?

If you took all these factors into account for full-cost analysis, I have no doubt you would in fact find that ‘aid’ is in reality much more costly than we realise.

There are always hidden costs to dependence - there is truly never a free lunch.

Mwene Kalinda