Gambia’s President, His Excellency Sheikh Professor
Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, has this week begun his annual leave. He will be
away for all of 25 working days, and it is unclear if his weekly
HIV/Aids healings will continue during the holiday.
The Gambia, with an official four-day working
week, remains arguably the best African country to work in, although the
five cabinet ministers summarily fired this month by the on-vacation
Jammeh would beg to disagree.
The merits or otherwise of this blatantly laissez faire
approach to labour for an economy heavily dependent on tourism and
groundnut exports are neither here nor there, but it is only one of the
many quirks to be found on the continent.
In Swaziland, where King Mswati III has put the
closed country on the world map with an annual eye fest that has
hundreds of maidens expectantly baring their bosoms at him, the
kingdom’s court of appeal sits only twice a year, supposedly due to a
lack of cases to hear. You probably know hundreds of human rights
activists who are weeping right now.
Just this week, in Liberia, all of 25,000
school-leavers flopped their university admission tests. In a country
extremely proud of its American roots and which names its citizens in
keeping with this (not very African), the students are said to have
lacked enthusiasm and a basic grasp of English. (Following presidential
intervention, some 1,800 will be let in.)
We digress. The Economist, that
schizophrenic British publication that can’t make up its mind about
Africa’s prospects, this week published the unlikely story that The
Gambia was now positioning itself as the world’s next offshore financial
centre.
Win-win?
Despite being ranked the 105th most corrupt nation
by Transparency International last year, and routinely placing near the
bottom of most governance indicators, this has not deterred the country
from having some of the continent’s more lax financial laws, almost at
par with those of the developing country tax-haven that is Mauritius.
While such conditions appeal to the secretive
nature of the outfits that use such vehicles, the positioning of The
Gambia as a hub for these firms and trusts is unlikely to console the
legions of campaigners that spend their time outing them.
But for Banjul, the idea is definitely a win-win.
Its growth prospects are dimmed by its size—it is the smallest country
in mainland Africa—and the tight control of the economy from the centre.
It is no coincidence that the countries that have
had the most success from being offshore financial hubs are the small
states who must of necessity diversify if they are to survive.
While the Gambian dream is still years off -
indeed it is yet to show up on the Financial Secrecy Index run by the
Tax Justice Network - the recent flurry of events around it suggest it’s
not as far-fetched as most would believe.
The financial windfall—licit or otherwise— to the
nation of 1.7 million would be enormous. There would appear to be a
method to the madness that the Jammeh regime thrives on, after all.
Twitter: @ShrewdAfrican
SOURCE: AFRICAN REVIEW
SOURCE: AFRICAN REVIEW
