Adjusting the Mandate

Apart from reorganising existing undertakings and establishing effective control over CDC’s dispersed operations, the corporation had drawn important lessons from its first phase of over-enthusiastic commitments on projects, which became embedded in its culture as a development organisation. On its directly managed projects, the key lessons were the necessity for thorough feasibility investigations, combined with pilot operations, before large capital commitments were entered into. Responding to project proposals introduced by colonial governments or by business interests, without any prior determination of priorities, was a prime cause of the random appearance of the initial portfolio. The West African Oilseeds Mission in 1947 recommended a large-scale settlement scheme in Northern Nigeria, which became the Mokwa Scheme. A Colonial Office mission in 1948 recommended a large scale irrigated rice scheme in Gambia, which became Gambia Rice Farms. Entrepreneurs in British Honduras proposed a banana scheme; in Hong Kong they proposed the purchase of the ex-Japanese hemp estates in North Borneo which became BAL; another proposition led to the setting up of Atlantic Fisheries in Gambia; yet another to the purchase of land in Swaziland for irrigation.