Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [africanworldforum] Re: Adeosun:$300m Diaspora bond out in March

Following cornelius’s memories

In 1978 my wife and I, based in yaounde, did a big road trip across w Africa. When we got to togo we intended to go to a friend’s village and then carry on to Ghana, but the border was closed, had just closed, b/c they were changing the currency to stop all the illegal money exchanges. By the time we were halfway up togo there were already people who had passed illegally through the border, but we never got to Ghana. Those were the days of “eyadema toujours” on the radio all the time, and when the required you to hand in your passport on arrival, and forcing you to bribe the police to get it back. We never did that, were warned off by others, and when we got to the border with “upper volta” and had to produce our passports to leave were all worried. Turns out we should have worried more about the car—the shocks gave way—than the border police who couldn’t have cared less.

ken

 

 

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

 

From: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com>
Reply-To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Thursday 12 January 2017 at 18:36
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [africanworldforum] Re: Adeosun:$300m Diaspora bond out in March

 

 

Once upona time, Ghana's approach

Jerry's idea could be revived. I can't quite remember the dates but sometime between 1981-1982 Jerry Rawlings was very optimistically urging Diaspora Ghanaians to please save their money (in USA $ & £ Sterling ) in Ghanaian Banks, with the promise that there their savings would accrue much higher interest and thus assist the Ghanaian cedi which was under great pressure and feeling the crunch and in that era, the crunch included the rapid depletion of foreign exchange in the country – even before being further battered by structural adjustment programs which had devaluation of the cedi as it's primary demand. ( I was in Nigeria then and had a lot of Ghanaian friends there, and in those days their primordial fear was the fear that here could be another military coup - through which their hard-earned savings could all be wiped out, on some happy new years' eve… like Junior Jesus (JJ's) second coming and Comrade Buhari's first coming...

(The subsequent trials and tribulations suffered by the Cedi was dramatically brought home to me about twenty years ago when I was chatting with a young Ghanaian lady during our work break; I told her about my Ga relatives (the Tagoes) and other relatives in Takoradi but most of all was boasting about the good old days of Kofi Busia when I used to travel to Aflao in Togo, where they offered a better exchange rate for my dollars and how my Better Half and I used to have our lunch at the Workers Canteen at Legon - a mountain of Kenkey and Kentumere for fifty pesewa ( half a cedi) at which point she fell to the floor, legs up, thrashing the air wildly seismic with laughter -as the poet once put it – and quite hysterical , tears rolling down her cheeks. When I was finally able to restore her to normalcy, tears still rolling down her cheeks, she told me what had thrown her into such a fit :

“Then you must be an old man, she told me – that must have been a long time ago – we don't have pesewa any more!” and added that the same mountain of kenkey and vegetable sauce would now cost a few cedis. I dared not ask her, “ And palmy?”)

Cornelius

We Sweden

On Thursday, 12 January 2017 23:14:34 UTC+1, Sam Andoh wrote:

Israel's Approach

In 1951, the Development Corporation of Israel implemented a program seeking aid from its diaspora with the objective of raising foreign exchange for the state. The annual issuances of these bonds are seen as a stable source of overseas borrowing while also allowing Israel to maintain ties to its expatriates. While Israel has sought aid as a means to build infrastructure rather than assistance during financial crisis, investments have jumped steeply during times of need. Annual sales of DCI bonds increased about $150 million during the 1973 Yom Kippur War from the prior year and by $500 million during the 2001 9/11 terrorist attacks. Unlike India’s diaspora bonds, DCI bonds never matched or exceeded the interest rates of U.S. Treasury Notes.

From: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/012815/how-diaspora-bonds-work.asp

Read more: How Diaspora Bonds Work | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/012815/how-diaspora-bonds-work.asp#ixzz4VaQmmU9o 
Follow us: Investopedia on Facebook

 

On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 11:41 AM, Mobolaji Aluko <alu...@gmail.com> wrote:

 

 

Joe Attueyi:

 

Not all Americans living "no matter where they live on the planet" pay taxes, just as not all Americans who live in the USA pay taxes - BEFORE they vote.  If you don't earn money, you don't pay taxes.  If you don't earn money ABOVE a certain amount, you don't pay NET taxes, even if you pay SOME taxes as you EARN;.  Now, if you are not of a certain age, whether you pay taxes or not, or if you are excluded due to a criminal record, you don't vote, whether you had paid taxes or not before incarceration.

 

So if Nigeria wishes to specify that to continue to maintain your citizenship when living outside the shores of the country, you must, at the very minimum

 

    (1)  register your name in the foreign mission of residence and

    (2)  REPORT your earnings AND taxes paid to your host country, 

 

then fine.  Those two steps should be a minimum to indicate that you still feel under some authority of your country of birth.  

 

However, if, after that, Nigeria wishes to 

 

   (3)  impose a nominal DIASPORA tax (with a maximum cap and a minimum alternate minimum tax) based on net income (earnings after taxes) in the denomination of the country of residence, 

 

then fine too.  

 

I am prepared to do all three in simultaneous exchange for a Diaspora vote,  but Nigeria should not unnecessarily burden Nigerians in the Diaspora to pay taxes BEFORE they vote, just as it does not burden Nigerians WITHIN Nigeria to pay taxes before they vote, otherwise it will look like a punishment to go abroad.  

 

I do not think that the Diaspora Bond should be connected in any real way to the Diaspora vote.  Provided the Bond Prospectus is properly drawn up, then a certain level of risk involved in investing in all securities - accompanied with a measure of patriotism in accepting certain lowered interest rate over a long maturity period - should be accepted by Diasporans and others included.

 

And there you have it.

 

 

Bolaji Aluko

 

On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 4:53 PM, 'Joe Attueyi' via AfricanWorldForum <africanw...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Anthony 

Should Nigerian citizens not also pay tax to Nigeria "...

no matter where they live on the planet."

 

Americans pay tax and vote "...

no matter where they live on the planet.

 

Joe

 

Sent from my iPhone

On 12 Jan 2017, at 3:34 PM, 'Anthony Momah' via OkonkwoNetworks <okonkwo...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Diasporan voting right should NOT and I say NOT be tied to the development of Diaspora fund... NIGERIAN CITIZENS should be able to vote, in their National election, no matter where they live on the planet.

 

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Subject: Re: [africanworldforum] Re: Adeosun:$300m Diaspora bond out in March
Sent: Thu, Jan 12, 2017 3:02:08 PM

 

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