(Reuters) – The breakaway territory of Somaliland cannot access foreign aid because it has not yet been recognized internationally as a state, and that suits it just fine.
“That is a blessing in disguise. Aid never developed anything,” Hussein Abdi Dualeh, Somaliland’s minister of energy and minerals, told Reuters on the sidelines of an African mining conference.
“Aid is not a panacea, we’d rather not have it … How many African countries do you know that developed because of a lot of aid? It’s a curse. The ones that get the most aid are the ones with the problems,” he said.
Dualeh is in Cape Town trying to woo junior mining companies to come and explore for minerals in Somaliland, which Dualeh described as Africa’s “land mining frontier. Almost completely unexplored”.
That might be a hard sell as even raising capital can be difficult for projects in a state that is not recognized internationally but Dualeh said Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991, showed that an African country could fend for itself with no outside help.
Somaliland has enjoyed relative stability compared with the rest of Somalia, which has been racked by decades of civil war, and has held a series of peaceful elections.
“We’ve been left to our own devices. We are our own people and our own guys. We pull ourselves up by our own boot straps,” said the U.S.-educated minister who speaks English with an American accent.
He also said that while the country could not access international capital markets it also had no debt as a result, adding to its narrative of self-reliance.
“We owe absolutely nothing to anybody. We would not change hands with Greece today. We have zero debt,” he said.
He said the country’s national budget was around $250 million, funded completely by its own resources.
Its economy is largely based on selling livestock – goats and cattle – to Arab countries, while it also relies heavily on the remittances of its diaspora community.
“Remittances from overseas prop up the economy to the tune of about a billion dollars a year,” Dualeh said.
(Editing by Alison Williams)
http://www.reuters.com/
"who ever Allah gives wisdom is giving abundance of good and only people of comprehension knows".(sura Baqra).
Or more like as the Somali proverb goes "Wixi aad hely kariin inaad ubahneyn ba laiska dhiga"
Somaliland ministry of energy have been making news lately. Good management of resources discovery needs informed citizens. The government of somaliland must create the right narratives about all this potential deals they are signing with this energy companies. The public is demanding local beneficiation of their minerals.Mining is a long term business and there is probability that the public May not yet see the fruits of these deals, but definitely the ink spread over these contracts will have a long lasting repurcations that have potential to outlive the current administration in power. The minister of energy is attending Idaba mining conference in South Africa. Looking for a larger slice of pie countries like South Africa formed black economic power development policies in order to translate considerable mineral endowment into infrastructures and jobs. The somaliland authority need to ask for transparent equitable and optimal exploitation of their mineral resources. We all agree the tone our political leaders set will do a lot to shape the investment flow. Three sobering facts come to mind when people try to explain the failure of somalias:tribalism,poor leadership and inequitable resource distributions. The minister must keep in mind those three points..I hardly post on comment section since I tend to write long opinionated stuff..Guess you are wondering am the contributor Mohamed Ahmed
Yes bc you know a currupt man would tell doners that we are better off without aid. Sarcasm intended. While the likes of xamaar constantly scream for aid and it constantly disappears while Somaliland and its leaders are constantly building. Curruption my right toe