{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Here’s my business plan for a vampire EA bank - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Here-s-my-business-plan-for-a-vampire-EADB-bank/-/434750/2734518/-/ufwtcg/-/index.html

Here's my business plan for a vampire EA bank

On Thursday, the African Development Bank (AfDB) rulers voted for Nigeria's Adesina Akinwumi as its new president. He will take over from Rwanda's Donald Kaberuka at the start of September. Kaberuka did East Africa proud.

Which raises the question, what is happening to our own Kampala-headquartered East African Development Bank (EADB)?

It had its troubles, and though it is still in business, it is hobbled by the small-mindedness of some of the partner states of the East African Community.

The EADB is an interesting creature. It, and the East African Inter-University Council, are the only two institutions of the late EAC 1 that didn't die with it.

You don't survive something like that for no reason. The EADB could have a great future, and become a sexy institution, but a few things need to happen.

First, it needs to get the AfDB treatment. At the start of the 1980s, it was opened to the so-called non-regionals like the US, the Europeans, Japan and so on who now own 40 per cent of the Bank.

As for the EADB, I think we should give 60 per cent of it to non-EAC nations, including some like Nigeria, Egypt, and most definitely Ethiopia, and to the US, China, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, whoever can pony up some serious money.

As the AfDB case demonstrates, it seems we Africans tend to behave better when there are "foreigners" in the room with us, because we don't want to come across like "typical natives." Leave us on our own, and the worst comes out.

We've all read horror stories of regional government officials colluding with crooked business people to shake down the EADB.

Second, the new EADB's mandate would prevent it from lending to mega national government projects. Private investors, the Chinese, and banks like AfDB are doing a good enough job funding dual carriageways and so on.

However, if it must, it should only fund regional projects — like a joint Tanzania-Uganda-Kenya shipping line on Lake Victoria, telcos developing East Africa-wide mobile payment systems, or the laying of fibre optic lines across borders.

But mostly it should be an innovation bank, lending to small companies coming up with things like mobile phone apps for diagnosing disease, doing robots, folks developing new medicines, or green energy solutions.

Essentially, the new EADB would have a strong venture capital function, focus on investing in things that can be exported outside the region.

Lending to innovation will bring other side benefits. First, the creative communities will blog, tweet, and Facebook about it. It will create a buzz about the organisation, and attract smart folks to come knocking on its doors with clever ideas. The rest of the world will notice, and court it too.

Today a good institution functions like the proverbial vampire. It must be able to attract young, energetic and beautiful things to it, and then feed off their blood to renew itself.

Here's my business plan for a vampire EA bank - Comment
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Here-s-my-business-plan-for-a-vampire-EADB-bank/-/434750/2734518/-/ufwtcg/-/index.html‎

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