Page 54 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 15

Innovate Afrika

Arlit and Akokan, 1200 km north-
east of the capital, Niamey, on the
western range of the Air mountains.
The mined ore is transported by
truck 1600 km to Parakou in Benin,
from where it is transported by rail,
400 km to Cotonou Port and then
exported.

Between them, Niger and Namib-
ia, two of Africa`s most arid and
impoverished countries, could be
supplying all of Africa`s uranium,
not if, but when, the continent turns
to nuclear power. However, uranium
should not be regarded as Niger`s
colonialism and more recently President Buhari`s APC ( All Pro- primary asset. Instead we should
destabilizing forces changed such gressives Congress) party. So why regard the 23 million Nigeriens as
fortunes. The original city of Maradi extend the line to Niger? the source of true wealth because it
is ancient , dating back thousands of is they, given the creative freedom
years to the time of the Silk Road. Because Africa must unite. from absolute poverty, who have the
potential to transform the economy
The remaining section from Mara- Apart from gold deposits, Niger is of their country.
din to Maradi will be financed and considered to have only one asset,
built by Niger.The contractor for uranium.Since 1968, Areva, an 80% The African Development Bank
the Nigerian line is a Portuguese French state-owned corporation has is funding a program to strength-
company (Mota-Engil). The line is obviously been the main beneficiary en Niger`s rural economy. Food
being financed by two European in a partnership which is definite- shortages, malnutrition and outright
banks. ly not `win-win`. Niger is the 4th starvation are a permanent situation
largest uranium producer globally. for the majority of Niger`s rural
The government has been heavi- It has high grade deposits. Areva population. In 2013, only 8% of the
ly criticized for extending the rail ( now called Orano)pays 5.5% tax population had access to electricity.
network beyond its borders.The and royalties to the Nigerien gov- 82% had no access to sanitation.
Kano-Maradi line goes from the ernment. When asked to raise this As of 2020, 15% of people have
northern capital, Kano, across the pathetic ammount, the extraction electricity. According to World Data,
border into Niger to the town of plant ceased service for a number Niger has an annual energy con-
Maradi which has a population of of weeks and the tax rate remained sumption of 1.07 billion kWh which
267,000. unchanged. is 46kWh per person per year. Life
expectancy is around 60. There are
The critics say that Niger has https://africanarguments. no railways at present.
nothing to offer. There are cities in org/2017/07/18/a-forgotten-com-
Nigeria that have a higher income munity-the-little-town-in-niger- If China has elliminated absolute
than the entire Niger State, which is keeping-the-lights-on-in-france-ura- poverty in one of its poorest and
geographically larger than Nigeria nium-arlit-areva/ dryest regions, the Uygur Region,
but mostly desert and desperately there is no reason at all why it can-
poor.The critics say why help Nige- Mining in Africa is dominated by not be done in a country like Niger,
riens when Nigerians are suffering the City of London extractive inter- provided that Africa as a whole,
? The government is being accused ests. The level of tax and royalties adopts the Chinese methods of
internationally of trying to capture paid to government is consistently developing the physical economy.
the trade that currently goes to low. Glencore Xstrata is one of the Niger is a partner in the BRI. On
the port of Cotonou in Benin and main culprits a State visit to Beijing in 2019,
of favouring the Muslim north of President Mahamadou Issoufou
Nigeria to garner popularity for Uranium is mined near the towns of and President Xi Jinping agreed to

54 | we tell the true afrikan story