Bright Simons, Whose Interests Does Your Criticism Serve? Africa Has the Right to Build Its Own Institutions
There is a new pandemic affecting Africa, and it’s not a viral virus or disease; it’s Western Agencies perpetual recruitment of our own people to discourage every ounce of effort Africa is putting into becoming economically, culturally, mentally sovereign.
It’s a pattern of questioning African development initiatives deserves serious examination, particularly when African countries attempt to build institutions that could strengthen their economic independence.
Why must every ambitious African project face a catalogue of doubts by Western agents before it has had the opportunity to demonstrate what it can achieve? Does Africa not have the right to build its own credit-rating system?
The latest of this many pieces and videos online by some Africans posing as agents of Western Agencies propaganda and information warfare is that of Bright Simons’ criticism of the African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA), which points toward unverified claims.
Simons questions about the AfCRA looked valid when you look at it from an netizen standpoint and perspective. But when you look beyond that, it’s bigger than what many social media users see on the surface.
A few weeks after the African Union launched the continent’s first Credit Rating Agency, the Africa Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA), Simons’, like how he’s always been doing it, took out his phone/laptop, sit down in a coffee restaurant probably in Europe, and wrote loads of questions about the AfCRA, I mean, he may call brand it “critical questions” but it’s not, he was, instead, just like his gimmicks, trying to downplay and create a false narrative around the AfCRA, as any Western Agent would have done.
Simons’ post on LinkedIn “asked” and critiqued the ownership, funding requirements, technical capacity and prospects for international recognition of the AfCRA. Which is fine, it’s his right to put out anything he wants to put out there on the internet. Fine.
But here is where my concern begins. When does legitimate criticism become a constant exercise in questioning African ambition?
But there is a difference between demanding accountability and approaching every ambitious African initiative primarily through the lens of suspicion. There is a difference between asking how an institution can succeed and creating the impression that it is destined to fail before it has even begun its work.
Africa cannot build institutions if every attempt to do so is treated as a national embarrassment waiting to happen.
A pattern that deserves examination
The AfCRA debate did not emerge in isolation. Over the years, Bright Simons has published strong criticisms of several major initiatives associated with Ghana’s digitalisation agenda and other public institutions. These examples seem to prove that he works for Western interests.
In January 2022, for instance, Simons criticised Ghana’s digitalisation drive, describing the government’s initiatives as poorly thought through and arguing that the overall programme was not transformative. You can read his report here.
In March 2024, he published another strongly worded article titled “No, Ghana Card is not ‘for’ Ghana; it is ripping off Ghana”. A response published by Citi Newsroom disputed important parts of his argument, particularly his claims about ownership of the system’s central technological infrastructure. The exchange can be read here.
In April 2024, Simons also criticised Ghana’s electronic procurement system, GHANEPS, as part of a wider argument about public procurement and World Bank-supported projects. Ghana’s Public Procurement Authority subsequently issued a formal clarification, disputing several of his claims about the platform, including the number of tenders and contracts recorded on the system and the scale of alleged procurement losses.
Then, in December 2024, Simons wrote about Ghana’s biometric immigration e-gate project, questioning aspects of its financing, implementation and dependence on foreign contractors. Read his article here: “Ghana’s shady e-Gate Project”
These are documented examples of his never-ending public propaganda galavanting as “honest criticism.”
Almost all of his misinformed and ignorant pieces demonstrate a consistent interest in questioning everything good that comes out of Africa. The man barely put out anything good
Criticism is necessary, but so is perspective
We must be able to celebrate genuine achievements without becoming Western agents propagandists. We must also be able to identify failures without turning every setback into an argument against African-led development itself.
So, yes, question AfCRA. Demand transparency. Challenge its assumptions. Insist on high standards. But do not make the existence of challenges an argument against Africa’s right to build.
The continent’s future cannot depend on waiting until every obstacle has disappeared before taking the first step.
Africa has the right to try. Africa has the right to improve. And Africa has the right to build institutions that serve its own people.
#TheAfricanDream #AfricanAgency #AfCRA #FinancialSovereignty
