Editor,

Re: The cost of aid dependence (The New Times, February 15, 2017)

I would like to give an example of how policies and practices by aid donors are as dangerous as Mwene Kalinda put it.

A donor country that has excessive soya beans will flood the recipient country with massive amounts of this produce, and sell it so cheaply to boost cooking oil production, which sounds very kind.

But truly, the seemingly benevolent gesture is intended to kill our local soya industry which in its initial stages cannot afford the economies of scale to compete with the assailant.

Unfortunately, some leaders take bribes and cannot listen to the citizens who point out that the aid should be directed towards boosting our own production.

This is one reason why some of the most endowed African countries are the largely backward in economic terms.

Muhamud