Afrika in Focus Special: Afrikans, Don't come to the UK!! Stay in Afrika

The UK's economic landscape has undergone significant transformation over the past two decades. The global financial crisis of 2008, Brexit, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the disastrous mini-budget of Liz Truss's brief premiership have collectively devastated the British economy. The national debt exceeds £4 trillion, while the cost of living has skyrocketed, particularly in housing. Rent prices have doubled in less than five years across the country, with London remaining exceptionally unaffordable.

In London, a one-bedroom flat in less affluent areas like Peckham or Camberwell now commands around £1,600 monthly. Even with a respectable London salary of £4,000 per month before tax (approximately £2,800 after tax), more than half of one's income disappears on rent alone. Factor in council tax, utilities, transport (costing around £260 monthly for Underground travel), and food, and there's virtually nothing left. This economic pressure explains why many Africans in Britain work multiple jobs, often starting at 4am and returning home at 10pm, barely seeing their families except on weekends.

The financial strain has fostered a credit-dependent culture that traps many immigrants in cycles of debt. The flashy lifestyles displayed by Africans returning home for holidays – the latest iPhones, designer clothes, and luxury items – are frequently financed through credit cards with exorbitant interest rates. Many African immigrants find themselves juggling credit card debt, car finance, mortgage payments, and personal loans, all while struggling to send remittances to family members back home who often don't appreciate the sacrifices being made to generate that £100 or £200 monthly support.

For students, the situation is particularly challenging. With student visas limiting work to 20 hours weekly and considerable visa application costs (around £4,000), studying in the UK has become financially untenable for many African students who lack substantial financial backing from home.

Beyond economic hardships, the social climate for African immigrants has deteriorated. The rise of populist, far-right political movements across Europe, including Reform UK, France's National Front, has created a hostile environment for immigrants, particularly those of African descent. 

Perhaps most tellingly, food banks – virtually non-existent in the UK twenty years ago – now operate in every town and city across Britain, serving not just the homeless but working families who cannot afford adequate nutrition despite full-time employment. 
Sources:

There’s no life in UK 🇬🇧🇳🇬| Africans in Uk warn fellow Africans

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Africa in Focus
• 1:30 The False Promise of UK Prosperity
• 4:20 UK's Deteriorating Living Conditions
• 9:50 The London Housing Crisis
• 15:27 The Credit and Debt Trap
• 22:10 Appreciating Money from Abroad
• 30:10 Student Visa Challenges
• 35:00 Final Thoughts and Next Episode

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Good evening and welcome to this edition of Africa in Focus with myself, kwame Gainian, writer, broadcaster, podcaster, entrepreneur, historian, and, in this edition of Africa in Focus, why Africans should not come to the UK or europe and stay in africa. So that's the theme for this week's show why africans must not come to the uk or europe, and we'll tell you why. We'll give you a breakdown why you should not come. So, before we get into the show, if you like what you hear, please subscribe to africa gardening folks on youtube. Subscribe to africaening Focus on YouTube. Subscribe to Africa Gardening Focus on Spotify. It doesn't cost anything. So please, you know, tell your friends, your family, your social media networks, affiliates, about a great podcast called Gardening Africa in Focus and subscribe to it on both YouTube and Spotify. And if you want to donate to the show, we welcome any gift donations to help us continue to produce fantastic content coming from Ghana and from the African world. You can donate as little as three US dollars a month and that would be great for you. Donations would be grateful. All right, so let's get into the show, looking about why africans must not come to the uk straight europe.

Speaker 1: 1:29

Now there's a perception in africa that you know and this perception is from the movies, it's from things like british council, etc. Etc. That if you come to europe or uk, you can make, you can have a good life, etc. Etc. And also those africans or ghanians have come who live in europe, live in the uk, come to ghana or come to africa for the holidays. You know, they, they kind of show off there. They've got their, their, the stuff that they have the Nike, the Reebok, the Iodas, the designer wear, you know, the flashy shoes, flashy clothes. They may have a nice watch, they may have the top of the range iPhone, etc. But you don't know how they got that. And as the podcast goes on, I will tell you how many Africans, right, actually live in debt, are actually in big debt. Because just because you see them wear masks and have a latest iPhone doesn't mean that they're doing well. No, that's a false picture that you are being presented. And so there's this perception out there that you can make it in quotes if you leave Africa, so if you leave africa, so if you live ghana, nigeria, kenya, wherever you are in africa, right, if you leave that country and come to uk or europe, you'll make it.

Speaker 1: 2:53

So I'm going to talk about uk, because I live in uk and I'm going to talk specifically about why african people should not come to the UK and also why you should value the little money that you get from your relative who's living in the UK or Europe, who sends you some money every month, why you should value that. But I'm specifically going to be talking about in this podcast, about why African people should not come to the UK, and so, like I said, we've broken down why there's a false perception yeah, and a false narrative that has been carefully and systemically cultivated, that if you leave Africa and come to the West right, you can live a good life, a comfortable life yeah, but the reality is, for many Africans who have come here, particularly in the last 10 years, the UK is very, very difficult and, like I said, I live in the UK and I know what's been going on in the UK over the last 10 years and that's why I've been here for the last 10 years, and so we can tell you what life is really like in the UK. And even you know UK is not too bad. But Europe 15 people you know Portugal, spain, france, germany, the Netherlands, belgium you think it's bad in the UK. It's even worse in the European Union because in Europe right, and there was a report way back in about 2008, 2009. That was commissioned. I think it was even another one in 2016, 2017. That was commissioned by the European Union itself called being Black in Europe. Yeah, and that report highlighted the life experiences of African people living in the European Union.

Speaker 1: 5:02

So in places like Finland, finland, the Netherlands, sweden, germany, belgium, france, portugal, italy, they studied the lives of Africans living in the European Union and found that mass discrimination. Many of these Africans who have got PhDs couldn't get decent jobs. They live in poor housing and poor areas of those countries. And, more importantly, why they didn't really live a good life? Because the money that they earned was of the lower rank in the society that they couldn't even save money for it and take them to their family. So they live in Europe and because of this, many Africans have left Europe right and have gone to either UK or America.

Speaker 1: 5:59

But let me talk about the UK. You know many Ghanaians in Ghana living in Ghana, many Africans living across the continent. You know they got these things about the UK because they watch premiership football. You know they watch. You know they've got this thing about London, the hype about London and Buckingham Palace and what have you? They think that the UK is a land of milk and honey, but the reality is the UK is far, far far from being a place of milk and honey. Yeah, and you know we have to talk truth, because a lot of Africans honey. Yeah, and you know we have to talk truth because a lot of Africans, right, they go on holiday and show off, right, and then tell their people, their family or their friends back home, right, how difficult it is in the UK.

Speaker 1: 6:56

But life in the UK now, in 2024, isn't like it was even 2004, 20 years ago. Because since 2004, you've had the global financial crisis that's hit the UK. You've also had Brexit that has hit the UK very, very hard that people didn't really want to talk about. You've also had the afterflow of the Russia Ukraine war that is why in the UK, energy prices are at the highest in the European Union and also you've had the after effects also right, of Liz Trush's disastrous mini-budget. If you don't know who Liz Trush is, right, she was Prime Minister of the UK for a mere 45 days, between September and October 2022. And her mini mini budget crashed, literally crashed the UK economy and overnight interest rates went up. So if you had a mortgage on your house, on your property, you were instantly hit with that and, given all these things, from the global financial crisis of 2008, through to brexit, through to this was a mini budget that has made life in the uk very, very hard for people.

Speaker 1: 8:13

Indeed, lots of people are struggling in the uk. Many don't care whether you're asian, african, white, caucasian, arab. There are many people struggling in the UK. So, for example, 20 years ago, there was no such thing as food bank. Yeah, 20 years on, yeah, 2025. There's a food bank in every city, every town in this country. And for those of you who don't know what a food bank is, food bank is a place where people who cannot afford to buy food because food is getting expensive in the UK, go to these food banks and get more or less tinned food, rice, pasta, you know from these places, you know, and take them to their family so that they can have, you know, a meal, because there are many people in this country, in the UK, who are not eating three meals a day, even school children school children, now right, most school children, particularly those from working class background. In the UK, they get their best meal, their breakfast, at school. Now, there's all these because of, you know, child poverty in this country. Yeah, believe it or not, there is child poverty in the uk. That's something that you don't hear in in the, you know, in african media, in ghana media. Yes, there's child poverty in the uk. To extend that, now, many schools in the uk england, scotland, northern and wells where many schools are offering children breakfast club, whereby children go to school and get breakfast, hot breakfast, because many of the parents can't afford to feed them breakfast, and so, like I said, many people in this country are struggling because of the high cost of living that is the aftermath of this trust budget, the Russia-Ukraine war, brexit and what have you.

Speaker 1: 10:10

For example, in the UK, rents have doubled in three years, so in 2020, a decent two-bedroom council house we're not talking about London, because London is this crazy place. I'll come to London in a minute, but outside of London, you could get a decent two-bedroom council house for maybe 400 a month. 400 a month, yeah, in Leeds, in Nottingham, derbyshire, the Midlands, manchester. This is about five, six years ago. Yeah, before COVID, rent were pretty decent in this country. Yeah, and rent is your biggest outlier and I'll come into that in a minute. But now, just a mere five days later, that same property, that two-bedding property up north that was going for £400, that now is going to at least £800, £900 a month. So it's doubled in less than five years. That's what I'm saying. Rents in the UK have doubled in less than five years.

Speaker 1: 11:20

And in London it's ridiculous you can't get a one-bedding flat. And this is even in South London. You know we're talking Peckham, camberwell, lewisham, blapham, streffham. You know Crystal Park. These are the poor, poor areas of London. I'm not talking Hending, I'm not talking Golders Green in North London. I'm not talking Acton or F North London. I'm not talking Acton or Fulham or Chelsea in West London. I'm not talking about even you know Bethlehem Green or Hackney in East London. I'm talking about South London. South London is basically one of the poorest boroughs in London. Yeah, even in those boroughs South London, right you can get a one bedroom flat for £1,600 a month. Check it £1,600 a month.

Speaker 1: 12:12

So just imagine in London if you're earning let's say you're earning in London, because London pay is not too bad but even still it's not comparable with the cost of living in London. So say, for example, in London you get £4,000 a month and this is before taxes, so that's £48,000 a year before taxes. So that's about £4,000 a month before taxes. So after tax, you're probably going to get about two, eight, yeah, about two, eight, two, eight. So that two, eight £1,600 out of two is going to go on your rent, and that's for one bedroom flat. I'm not talking about two bedroom house, I'm not talking about three bedroom house, I'm talking about a one bedroom flat in, you know, peckham, camberwell, south London, jeffham, them areas yeah, £1,600 a month for a one bedroom flat and you're earning £2,800 a month out of tax. So that's half, that's more than half your money, your income on rent, yeah, and so we're not even talking. You know, if you add the council tax, you add your water, electricity, heating, gas, food, transport, your money's gone. So this is why people in the UK, particularly in London, are lived off credit Because your money, because of the cost of living crisis in this country and particularly the cost of living in London, is that high that £4,000 is nothing in London, even if you get £8,000, and I'm being very generous here £8,000 a month right before taxes.

Speaker 1: 14:05

So £8,000 a month is £96,000. Unless you work in the City of London, you can't get that money. Even those who work in the City of London and I've seen salaries in the City of London the City of London is the financial heart of London. I've seen people's salaries in the City of London. Why Not the big guys? I'm talking about the average guys. Some of them are 60k, 70k, 45k, 55k, 80k in London, working in the city of London for some of these big multinational companies and some of these investment banks. So even 8 grand 8000 in London is nothing because that's before tax, so that's the tax in London. And because you're not in £6,000 a year, which is £8,000 a month, you're paying high tax rate.

Speaker 1: 14:58

Yeah, so that £8,000 before tax is a month. You're probably looking at about £5,000 a month in London. So if you're living because you're working citywide, you can probably afford to live a bit decent. But I was in London the other day and this is near the city of London. This is in E14. E14 is about a couple of miles from City of London, two or three miles from the City of London. Even one bedroom apartment one bedroom apartment is two grand £2,000 a month. Yeah, a two bedroom apartment in E14 is £2,800 a month.

Speaker 1: 15:44

Hmm, so if you're a single person, you want to get somewhere decent in London. Right, and I mean decent, I'm not talking about one bedroom backstreet, you know, like I said, in Peckham, with all due respect to Peckham, camwell, brixton, ameer, is why the kind of ghetto areas? Yeah, it's jeff firm, clapham crystal palace. Yeah, with all due respect, we're not the greatest areas of london. So if you say, if you, after tax, you're on 6k a month, 5, 5k a month, it's nothing in London because rent alone will take up to half your money. Rent alone and then, like I said, factoring council tax, electricity, heating, gas, water. Yeah, you may have a phone contract. Yeah, because there are no phone lines anymore in this country. Everyone's on a mobile contract. Yeah, you may have, you may.

Speaker 1: 16:42

Oh my gosh, transport in London is very expensive. I was in London the other day, right, went out for a day's trip, right, and I took the underground, the tube, all up, because it's very, very convenient to go across London. If you want to go across London, don't go on bus, you should go on a tube. I paid £13 just for that day, £13 just to use a tube between North London, south London, east London and Central London £13 for that day.

Speaker 1: 17:12

So if you're living in London, you're working in London, right, say, for example, you live in I don't know. Let's say you live in North London or East London and you work in Central London. You know West London. You've got to take your trip because that's the quickest way to get from North to South. You're paying £13 a day to use an underground network. That's £65 a week. Times by four, that's £264 times four weeks. Sorry, £65 times four weeks, that's £260 a month on transport. Just that. That's just an underground transport.

Speaker 1: 17:54

Right, because you can't really drive in London because of the way you know you let. Right, because you can't really drive in London because of the way you know you can't really drive in London, yeah, so your best form of transport is either the tube that everyone takes or the buses, yeah, and so you're spending, on average, £300 a month just to use a tube in London. Add that to your cost as well. So, even £8,000 before taxes, there's nothing in London because your rent and other things will eat up your money quickly. So this is why, even within the UK London, people are moving from London to other parts of the UK, like in Manchester, nottingham, derby, birmingham, you know, peterborough, where it's less cheaper, not as expensive as London, but still, roughly speaking, cheaper than even London.

Speaker 1: 18:46

Yeah, so in London there are many Africans, many Ghanaians who have got two, three jobs just to survive in London because, like like I said, even five grand £5,000 a month after taxes is nothing in London, nothing, nothing beloved. So that's why, you see, many Africans got two, three jobs. Many Africans don't see their children. From break of dawn to late at night Africans are working. So an African will get up in London 4 am in the morning, go and do their first job. So this is before even their child wakes up. They'll leave the house at 4 am in the morning, right to go to their first job. Right After their first job, maybe two hours cleaning. Then they go and do their main job, maybe some factory work, right, then they're going to do their main job, maybe some factory work, right, maybe eight, you know, nine to four. Right After that they've got a third job, maybe to do some small security, from five to eight. So by the time they get back at night, by the time they get back at house, it'd be ten o'clock at night, right. So between four in the morning when they leave the house and ten at night. They'll see, see their children.

Speaker 1: 19:55

What sort of life is that? And this is the life that many african people are living in, particularly in london. They've got two or three jobs, don't see their children, apart from weekend. And you and you want to come to the uk. You want, you, you want to come to the uk and basically work like a horse and and there's nothing to show for it. So, even outside of London, because the wages are not great outside of London, so, even if you earn, because the average salary in the UK is about £32,000.

Speaker 1: 20:29

Yeah, so that's about three grand a month Before taxes. Yeah, let's call it £50,000 a month. Yeah, a year grand a month before taxes. Yeah, let's call it 50,000 pounds a month. Yeah, a year, sorry before taxes. So that's three grand, three 3,000 pounds before taxes. Yeah, so before tax, right, that 3,000 pounds is probably about two grand, maybe two grand, maybe one. Let's call it two grand, yeah. Or let's say no, no, let's say that's about two, two, two, let's say £2,200. That £3,000 a month, let's say £2,200,. Yeah, call it £2,200.

Speaker 1: 21:10

Now, house prices in the North are expensive, but not like London, right. So a typical two-bedroom house up north, you're probably looking about a grand Right, a grand £1,000, £1,200 for a two-bedroom house outside of Manchester, birmingham, derby, nottingham, you're probably looking about, you know, 1200 quid for a two-bedroom house apartment. Yeah, so that's nearly half. That's half of the 2000. That's more than half of the 2200 pound a month after taxes. So that's it.

Speaker 1: 21:53

So now you've got a thousand pound left. That thousand pound left that you got thousand pound left that you got got to go for counter tax your water, your heating, electricity, your car or transport food. Yeah, so you basically got nothing. You got nothing after taxes after all these expenses. You got nothing after all these. You've got nothing after taxes After all these expenses. You've got nothing. After all these bills, you've got nothing UK's about bill, bill, bill, bills, bills.

Speaker 1: 22:21

That's it. Yeah, you know, even if you have a partner, you're married and your joint income outside of London is about £5,000. That's good money after taxes, £5,000, but don't forget, you're married with your wife and you've got one child. You're probably living in a two, three bedroom house. That's taking half your rent. Yeah, taking half your rent.

Speaker 1: 22:51

And, like I said, factoring bills, bills, bills, bills. And I'm not even talking about going out and eating in a nice restaurant. I'm not talking about even having a Netflix subscription. I'm not even talking about having a gym membership right, I'm talking about the basic bills After you rent council tax there, you've got to pay, composite, manager, you've got to pay your water, water, your light, your heating that's manager, you've got to pay that right. Then your transport, because obviously you have to move from A to B. Transport food yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:29

So that's six things I've mentioned after you rent, six things I've mentioned that are essential, yeah, and at the end of the month it is a very, very little, if any, which is why in the uk and this is what many people in ghana and africa not aware of many people in uk borrow money. That's a trap, that's a debt trap that you talk about in ghana or africa, the debt trap that is in the UK, because the money that you get is not enough. It's just enough to scrape by. It's not enough to live on, it's just enough to get by.

Speaker 1: 24:02

And so what many people do? They take this credit card? Yeah, and they use their credit card to buy a car, yeah. So when you see Africans, you know you may come over here for a holiday or whatever. You know you may come over here for a holiday or whatever. You may have family here, you may spend coming over here for a holiday.

Speaker 1: 24:18

You may see people driving nice cars, but it's on credit. The mobile phone, the iPhone 16, that they got, iphone 14. Galaxy Samsung flip phone, galaxy S25. It's all on credit, beloved Credit, because in this country credit is king. So even the clothes that they wear, it's all on credit, beloved credit, because in this country credit is king. Yeah, so even even the clothes that they wear the identicals that they wear it's all on credit card. And at the end of the month they've got to pay the interest on that credit card. Yeah, which sometimes can be even more right than getting a mortgage. Yeah, because I used to work in a a payday loan, because that's another thing in the uk payday loan, I swear for one of these companies, why?

Speaker 1: 25:00

And interest rates? Interest rates on the payday loan is phenomenal. We're talking about double figures, double figures for a payday loan or credit card. So in the uk, believe it or not, many people are in debt. There's three million debt because the UK, the national debt alone in the UK, is more than four trillion pounds. I want to say again yes, you heard me, the national debt in the UK is more than four trillion pounds. They didn't tell you this. Africa, did they? Bbc didn't tell you about South Africa, did they? Bbc didn't tell you about this? Yeah, they gave you a false impression about the UK, but the UK is a massive debt, huge debt, and the average person in the UK, the average person in the UK, is in 50 grand worth of debt.

Speaker 1: 25:49

I know people that are in debt more than a hundred thousand pounds in the UK because they're taking out credit card. They're taking out Because they can have credit card, they can have loan. They're paying it Right. On top of that, they've got a mortgage. That's another trap in the UK, because this thing in the UK yeah, buy a house, buy a house, buy a house, buy a house that's a trap. That's people's self-reliance, but people don't understand that.

Speaker 1: 26:16

And when you buy the house right, you don't. You don't own it per se, because you're paying a mortgage. Yeah, you may be paying about a thousand pound a month to that mortgage or whatever. Yeah, and if you miss a payment, right that, there's two things that can happen. A, it goes to your credit report because if you miss a payment, and that go with your mortgage. You miss a loan payment. You miss your phone, uh, contract payment, that missed payment right goes with your mortgage. You miss a loan payment. You miss your phone contract payment. That missed payment right goes on your credit report, yeah, and that can give you a bad credit rating. And secondly, right, you know that mortgage, right that you pay is between 20 and 30 years. So you're going to be working, slaving off your butt in the UK to pay for your house for the next 20 to 30 years. You call that life In Africa, in Ghana, people that you see these big houses, people own it, people buy, people own the houses.

Speaker 1: 27:13

It's very, very rare that in Ghana or Kenya or Zimbabwe or Cote d'Ivoire or Nigeria or Morocco or Botswana or Cameroon that people pay much. No, these big houses, these mansions, six-bedroom houses, five-bedroom houses, five-bedroom houses, four-bedroom houses for boys' quarters people own their property. In Africa there's no mortgage. I know they're trying to introduce it right now. It's like Ghana, nigeria, kenya, et cetera, trying to introduce it right, but it's still very few and far between. People in Africa own their houses. In Africa you see a person riding a nice car. He owns that car. He or she owns that car. Yeah, you're not paying car finance, you're not paying APR like in the UK or Europe. They actually own their car.

Speaker 1: 28:07

So Africans don't bother coming to the UK, right, because the UK is hard. The UK is not like it was 30 years ago. 25 years ago, yeah, where by the cost of living was okay. Yeah, life in UK is very, very difficult. In fact, I know for a fact that many Africans have left the UK because they could not, you know, afford to live in UK. So they've gone back to Ghana or Nigeria or Zimbabwe or Kenya, where they came from, because the cost of living is too high, too high in the UK.

Speaker 1: 28:43

Add to that the pressure, and so you Africans right on the ground, when your family sends you 100 pounds, yeah, 100 euros, you should be thankful. Yeah, because you don't know the hell that your family member goes through to give you that £100 or €100 a month that they're sending you. Yeah, and that's another thing that many Africans struggle with, right, this money that we call black tax. You know, sending money home. That is killing a lot of Africans because they have to force themselves to work. Yeah, in order to give you back home money and when you get that money, money, you don't appreciate that money. I know that money is spent for school fees and why have you right?

Speaker 1: 29:27

But that money that you get, you should appreciate it, because you don't know what your brother, your sister, your auntie, whatever is going through right in the uk, in europe, to get a hundred dollars, a hundred pounds for you. Yeah, they're going through hell. They have to wake up. Like I said, they have to wake up in, particularly in the UK, in Europe, to get that $100 or £100 for you. Yeah, they're going through hell. They have to wake up. Like I said, they have to wake up, particularly in London. Three jobs in London. They wake up in the morning in the cold, walking through the cold, right to get transport to go to work yeah, doing their first job. They have to do their second and third job just to give you back home £ job. They have to do their second and third job just to give you back home 100 pound a month or 200 pound a month.

Speaker 1: 30:07

And you don't appreciate it. Fire burn you, fire burn you, you african ugandans who don't appreciate the fact that your family member gives you 200 pound a month, because you're being very wicked because you don't know what they go through in the uk in order to give you that money. In actual fact, many Africans are bankrupt because they're sending you money back home every month they can't afford it but because some of you are cursing, oh he's going to UK, oh, he's living good. Yeah, he's not living good. Your relative, yeah, like I said, is juggling in the uk because they live on credit. Most africans why are living on credit? Because their money their salary is not, is nothing particularly if they live in london is nothing, beloved, nothing. So they have to get credit card in order to supplement the income that they're getting. But, mind you, at the end of the month, they're going to pay the interest on the credit that they took out, which can be very, very high as well.

Speaker 1: 31:10

And so do not get it twisted. Family in Africa, that your, your cousin or your relative in the UK is doing well. No, yes, there, yes, there are exceptions, but there are very, very few Africans who are doing very, very well. Yeah, and, mind you, yeah, if you come as a student on a student visa that's another thing that they didn't tell you in Africa right, you've got to pay about £4,000, this visa application, yeah, to get that student visa. And when you get a student visa, you can only work 20 hours, yeah, so you can't work full-time, you can only work 20 hours as a student in the UK, yeah, and if you're not getting money to supplement your stay, how are you going to survive in the UK as a student? Because I know many students why In UK, where I am, they've actually left UK, gone back to Africa because they couldn't afford to study in the UK. Because it's not easy, because even as a student, you're going to pay your rent, because I, hmm, rent, like I said, rent will kill you. Kill you, yeah, and you're only allowed to work 20 hours a week. How the hell are you going to survive working 20 hours a week? Yeah, and then you've got all these bills to pay, hmm, it's not easy. Not easy Live in the UK, yeah, and, like I said, africans that come home for holiday, they tell you lies, because what they don't tell you is that you see them with the latest iPhone.

Speaker 1: 32:42

You see them with the latest iPhone. You see them with designer wear, you see them with all this. You know iPad, laptop, all of you. Right, they're paying on credit, credit and even to get credit in the UK is not easy because if you've got a bad credit history, it's very, very high, unlikely for you to get credit from any other. You know to get a credit card or to get a loan even, let alone even get a mortgage. If you've got bad credit, forget getting a mortgage. Yeah, so you know we're going to make it plain.

Speaker 1: 33:16

Today we have to say it like it is, you know, because I know a lot of YouTubers and a lot of Africans are going for Christmas think they tell you lies that UK Europe is great. No, we're here to tell you the truth. We're not going to shoot you. Nothing beloved you can take it or leave it alone. I live in the UK and I see what's going on in the UK. Uk is finished, finished beloved. Brexit, russia-ukraine war, let's trust many budget have destroyed the UK. Uk is not what it was 25-30 years ago. So, in closing, africans, please stay in Africa. There's nothing for you in the UK. Nothing for you in the UK.

Speaker 1: 33:58

If you're lucky enough to get into the UK, you're going to find it difficult to get a job because they're shutting down left, right and centre. People have been laid off left, right and centre. And now, because of new technology like AI, you don't want you. And add to that the critical climate in the UK and Europe or the rise of populist parties, like in the UK you've got reform. So in France you've got Le Pen, le Front National. In Italy you've got Giorgio Maloney, who's a populist, far-right politician he's actually prime minister of Italy, spain, portugal. You've got far-right parties. In the Netherlands, I think they had a far-right party on the. You know. I think they resigned recently. Yeah, because of Israel, over immigration. So immigration is a big hot potato in Europe and the UK.

Speaker 1: 34:54

Yeah, you're not wanted, don't want Africans in the UK, yeah. Two, the cost of living in the UK is very, very high, particularly in London. You come, you're looking to come. Yeah, you need to work, particularly in London. A free job, just to survive, yeah, and so appreciate love, appreciate what you got in Africa, because you don't know, I know life inside in Africa.

Speaker 1: 35:27

If you live in Ghanaana, I understand what. What went on in ghana before muhammad came. Muhammad's trying to make things a bit easier in ghana, but it was a lot worse under akufo-aloh in nigeria. I know things are bad in nigeria because of um, you know, uh, tinibu has removed the subsidies. I know that's making things in Nigeria expensive. Kenya RUTU is doing what it's doing, yeah. So we know some of the African leads are not doing what they should be doing, but it's better than coming to UK where there's nothing for you and they can't live inside.

Speaker 1: 35:54

Even these Africans Africans just come, just come. They're struggling. Maybe five to a house, they're struggling. Living in one bed yeah. Sharing a house With four or five people, sharing a toilet, kitchen, bathroom With four or five other people yeah. Working from Eight in the morning, eight at night You've got no life. Is that the life that you want?

Speaker 1: 36:18

So I hope that you've Found this Edition of African Influence Very, very informative, and you know. So I hope that you've found this edition of African Focus very, very informative and thought-provoking, because we're not going to showcase nothing for you. We'll tell our kids the truth and we want you to understand that living in the UK is not easy at all. It's very, very difficult because of the things I mentioned in the podcast. And Europe, where black people are treated even worse than the UK, yeah, europe is even worse France, germany, netherlands, spain, portugal, etc. It's even worse than the UK, and so maybe you think twice about leaving Africa, leaving Ghana, and try to make a life for yourself in Ghana or wherever African country you come from.

Speaker 1: 37:05

All right, so this has been Africa In Focus with myself, kwame Ghanaian writer, journalist, podcaster, entrepreneur. Please subscribe to Ghana Africa In Focus on YouTube. Subscribe to Ghana Africa In Focus on Spotify. All right, and in next week's edition we've got a special. Next week is the 16th anniversary of the death of Michael Jackson, the greatest entertainer that ever lived. We're going to tell you why Michael Jackson was killed and why the white man wants to destroy Michael Jackson's legacy, but Michael Jackson's legacy will never be destroyed. But check out for that in this edition of africa in focus. And so for myself, kwame and for the crew here on africa in focus is thank you very much for listening and we see you in the next edition of africa in focus.