Will I help you marry a wife and take her to bed?

There is an African proverb that states that you cannot marry a wife for your son and teach him how to take her to bed. Poignant when I was reading an article on remittances and their contribution to economic growth.

Adultery could be forgiven when you're the piper.

Credit: 10 Gebot (Lucas Cranach d A) by Lucas Cranach the Elder via Wikimedia Commons

A lot of persons will tell you that remittances from overseas can lead to economic growth for their country. But, research has found that it is not true. Rather than remittances fueling economic growth, they’d rather reduce it by creating a dependence on remittances which occasions the recipients being less obliged to look for work. When the remittances fail to come, the government feels the pinch of the lost foreign exchange.

Creating an avenue for money from abroad to enter the country is fine and good, especially for poor families who have relatives abroad. What the study found was that these money were most times sent to fuel consumption, such as importing goods from abroad or buying land for living, and not to be invested in any project that could significantly improve the human or technological capital of the receiving countries.

If I help you to marry, don’t expect me to teach you how to take her to bed.

You can read the article yourself on the world economic forum.