African Leaders Who Give Mining Tax Breaks Are Criminals-Kagame

Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, has denounced as a form of criminality, the situation where African countries give tax breaks to mining companies while they beg for aid.

Speaking in Congo Brazzaville recently, Mr. Kagame criticized his peers on the continent who remove subsidies on commodities for their own people but give tax companies to Western behemoths.

“There ought to be a shift in thinking by African leaders, to realize that the problems they are facing individually as a country and collectively as a continent can only be solved by ourselves,” he said,

“I have seen a number of my brothers in this continent as leaders, who go to beg with a bowl to the West and say they need help. I get puzzled and pissed at the same time.

Look, the gentleman is kneeling with a bowl to the west but he has minerals, plenty – which he is giving out for free through criminal tax concessions. We must be serious with ourselves and safeguard our endowments. I call such people criminals,” Kagame said while causing laughter in the Congo Brazzaville Parliament.”

Kagame’s comments hit home, where the Ghanaian government has given massive tax breaks to foreign companies while reeling under debt.

Commenting on the effects of the Russia and Ukraine war, on Africa, Kagame said it provides African leaders the bitter lesson that reliance on the West is suicidal.

“People are coming to me asking how I have reduced the price of fuel in Rwanda; in the midst of an increase of oil prices in the international market and my answer is that, it is up to us leaders to ensure that we cushion our people with necessary interventions.

Such interventions include but are not limited to; cutting government expenditure and putting in measures to ensure that we save enough money and place it on programs to cushion the people. It requires sacrifice but, most importantly, you must be a leader who can make independent choices. If you are a puppet, you will not be able to think based on what you see, they will always pull the strings and say dance to this tune,” Kagame stated.