Victor EzejaPresident of the African School of Governance, (ASG), Professor Kingsley Moghalu, has called on leaders of African countries to see the policy of foreign aid cessation adopted by the United States president, Donald Trump, as a wake-up call to evolve independent strategies for real development of the continent.
Trump, who assumed office for his second term on 20 January 2025, announced the scrapping of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a major agency of the countries, used for donating funds for humanitarian and development assistance purposes by the US across the world.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelIn a public lecture delivered on Wednesday, 19 March 2025 at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy National University of Singapore, Moghalu noted that the disbandment of USAID and the immediate consequences “has forced African countries to confront seemingly existential questions about their path to development, and the continent’s relevance in the world.”
Citing data from the US Foreign Assistance website, he said USAID allocated a total of $12 billion to African countries in 2023 – mostly for healthcare, food assistance and security programmes. The top five recipients of the financial aid in 2023 include: Nigeria, $512 million; South Africa, $481 million; Uganda, $436 million; Mozambique, $392 million;
Kenya, $377 million; and Zambia, $371 million.
In a lecture titled “Africa’s Development Trajectory in a New World Order: Implications of the Trump Presidency 2.0, Moghalu said the impact of the Trump aid cuts will be devastating, adding that it has been estimated that the action will push nearly six million more Africans into extreme poverty in 2026.
The former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, however, argued that despite what seems to be a “catastrophic” impact of the U.S. aid cuts, Africa lost far more than it ever gained from the so-called development aid.
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According to him, the crisis arising from the aid cuts should be seen as an opportunity to chart a new course for real development of African countries that are not dependent on foreign aid.
“Our continent should take this international political earthquake as an opportunity to create a paradigm shift that will lead to the real development of African countries,” Moghalu admonished.
He warned that the short-term projections of lives and jobs that will be lost in Africa because of the drastic reduction of foreign aid should not confuse African leaders on the need for rational thinking on a pathway to sustainable development.
Why Foreign Aid Can’t Lead to Sustainable Development
Moghalu highlighted that no revered developed nation achieved that through dependence on international assistance or aid.
He explained that development comes with evolving homegrown solutions within each society, driven by a philosophical worldview that projects a country’s national ambitions that are anchored by a value system and backed by strong leadership and competent governance.
According to him, “Most African countries have lacked these essential ingredients for development. Moreover, there is no example of any developed country that achieved that revered status by virtue of foreign aid.”
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He said African countries were deceived to believe that foreign aid is a necessary path to development, but the costs of aid have been huge.
He observed that apart from the loss of income and jobs from potentially sustainable industries that foreign aid crowds out, it also has a psychological effect in the form of a lack of self–respect and mutual respect in relations between recipient and donor countries. “Foreign aid also suffocates initiative and self-reliance. A country that relies on organised handouts can scarcely be said to be truly independent,” he further noted.
He also stated that most foreign aids come with certain economic and geopolitical interests which aim to influence the domestic policies of recipient countries.
Because of such hidden interests of donor countries, foreign aid has not achieved its presumed goal of development as it failed to address the real factors that drive economic development. These, according to him, include “massive investments in education to provide skilled manpower that can drive a country’s future growth, access to finance, jump-starting wealth creation through private enterprises, and the mass production of the outcomes of scientific innovation.”
He added that “African countries need to unlock wealth creation in their domains, not focus on small visions such as ‘‘poverty reduction.’’
Speaking on a possible pivot to other world powers like China and Russia to fill the void that will be created by Trump’s “isolationist” policies, the political economist advised African leaders to jettison the idea, noting that “all Great Powers are in the same business – that of power projection and the advancement of their strategic national interest, often at the expense of those of weaker countries. When it comes to ‘development aid’, it is, sadly, mostly a zero-sum game in reality.”
He stressed that Africa needs a homegrown solution both for economic and political development.
Lessons from Asia
The ASG president said developed countries in Asia today did not achieve that by reliance on foreign aid but “by competent economic planning and execution, and societal discipline.”
He further stated that unlike Africa, Asia has little or no natural resources, but was able to grow rapidly through massive investments in education and skills acquisition.
“Africa has a large chunk of the world’s strategic minerals and yet has not been able to shake off poverty and underdevelopment. The key difference in Asian countries was the value placed on massive investments in education and skills acquisition, and the deployment of these skills in a shift from agrarian economies to manufacturing and export-led ones,” he stated.
Commenting on the argument that Africa’s future lies more in digital services than in manufacturing, he maintained that it can only be realized by having a skilled youthful population. “This was the secret, in particular, behind the rise of China,” he noted.
Need for Population Control
Moghalu also emphasised that apart from investments in education and skills, there is also a need for population control in Africa. He expressed concerns that African countries are not focused on controlling population growth, which has outpaced economic growth in most of the continent.
He warned that without controlling population growth and combining it with massive investments in education as Asia did, “Africa is more likely to have a youth bulge and social crises in the next quarter-century than an economic boom.”
In concluding his lecture, Moghalu said Trump has “set Africa free to truly think for itself and to organise itself for real development.”
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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