WINDHOEK – Youth activist, author and a former president of the University of Namibia (Unam) Student Representative Council (SRC), Joseph Kalimbwe, is set to release his fourth book titled Fractured World; How Irresponsibility Led to Third World Economic Downturns, early next month.
Kalimbwe says he was inspired to write the book by the economic problems African countries have been facing over the past ten years. “In 2007 – 2008, according to my research, banks in the United States (US) lent out too much money for mortgages and other expenses to clients than the customers themselves could afford. Additionally, governments, African governments in particular, also borrowed more than they could pay back,” says Kalimbwe, adding that as a result of this reckless borrowing, financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, a global financial services firm in America, filed for bankruptcy and some automobile industries collapsed, leading to hundreds of job losses on the continent.
“The American administration at the time had to inject billions of dollars to save the world economy from collapse, but ten years since those irresponsive decisions made by financial executives, African governments seem not have learnt a hard lesson from those experiences. This is what prompted me to write this book,” explains Kalimbwe. The youth activist’s book comes at a time when southern African countries have outstretched their hands to seek financial help from western countries.
“Last week, Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein announced that Namibia plans to borrow more money from Germany this year through the German Development Bank (GDB), which has some cooperation agreements with the Namibian government.”
Kalimbwe, 25, says reckless continuous borrowing and lack of proper plans on how to spend the borrowed loans is largely the reason why state institutions make such costly decisions as many of the financial assistance they receive will still need to be paid back. He explains that “a strong fiscal outlook is an essential foundation for a thriving economy. If we put the nation on a sustainable fiscal path, the economy creates a positive environment for growth, opportunity, and prosperity for everyone but if weak policies are put in place, we are just setting ourselves up for failure.”
The book’s foreword is set to be done by former Goldman Sachs and Barclays Bank Economist, Dambisa Moyo.