I kept hearing the term ‘credit crunch’ everywhere I turned. I thought this all was a western phenomenon; I mean, surely, this had nothing to with us. After all credit cards are all but a myth and getting a loan is as easy as climbing Mt. Karisimbi.

However I’ve realized that this crisis emanating by the West could and, is, actually is affecting us, Africans.

First of all, most of the major investors in Africa are the same foreign nationals, with their endless credit lines and huge sums, who are now facing bankruptcy.

I was enjoying the ‘rich’ countries’ discomfort at this time, thinking "finally they have got their comeuppance for being so complacent”.

Then it clicked. Whenever these so-called ‘first world’ countries, get a problem, it usually reverberates our way and the predicament is more profoundly felt in the ‘Third world’.

Why did I think this would be any different? Well, because some of our Heads of State, I remember President Museveni of Uganda , kept assuring us that we have enough food to keep us going as we are basically agricultural states and that the credit crunch nonsense was exactly that; nonsense.

Our President assured us repeatedly that Rwanda was decreasing its aid acceptance. This crisis will only increase our dependence and this will hit our countries ability to be self sufficient-thus continuing our dependency syndrome.

But there might be silver lining in this storm cloud.
One has to wonder whether with the current crisis aid will be forthcoming or we will have to bear the brunt as often happens to the weak in times of disaster.

If this is about to happen then Rwanda has made the right moves in trying to cut aid dependence and to, instead, attempt to find solutions from within.

The financial crisis came home with a thud with the news that Rwandatel had laid off many workers. Was Rwandatel’s move of dismissing approximately one hundred and fifty employees one of the local repercussions of it all?

With reduced consumer purchasing power in western capitals, and the reduction commodity prices on the world market, Africa is left with a surplus of agricultural products.

However, whereby everywhere else banks are closing shop due to bankruptcy or mismanagement of funds, Africa has fared better than most, with most of our banks still going strong and the international ones with divisions in Africa being held aloft by these branches.

Hopefully, America will revise its protectionism policy for farmers and start considering Africa as a player to reckon with.

Ends