adminFarirai Machivenyika in Midrand, South Africa
African countries should promote value addition and beneficiation as a deliberate policy to create jobs and generate wealth, Eswatini Prime Minister, Russell Dlamini said yesterday.
Mr Dlamini said this while addressing the ongoing third session of the sixth Pan African Parliament in Midrand, South Africa, adding that Africa had great potential to develop given its vast mineral and natural resources.
“I would like to begin by stating that Africa has great potential, a potential whose time is ripe to be realised in our lifetime. Our continent is blessed with natural endowments such as its climate, fertile soils, mineral resources and a vibrant youthful population. Such assets must be protected from both internal and external threats that seek to exploit and plunder them without limit.
“The era when African resources enriched foreign lands while our own people suffered in poverty and hardship must urgently come to an end.
“Africa has some of the largest untapped reserves of natural and mineral resources, which are often exported in their raw form. This practice must be transformed through a deliberate move from planning to real action on value addition through beneficiation of our vast primary products spanning various sectors. Exporting raw materials is tantamount to exporting jobs and wealth outside our continent. We must add value to our resources to reap the full benefits of our hard work.”
The call for value addition and beneficiation by the Eswatini Prime Minister dovetails with Zimbabwe’s thrust which also emphasises the need to add value to mineral resources.
The Government has also banned raw exportation of such minerals as lithium, chrome and black granite as part of measures to increase the country’s benefits from its resources.
“Where technology is lacking, there should be skills sharing among African nation states, and where necessary, mutually beneficial partnerships for technology transfer must be established. The fourth industrial revolution should anchor the continent’s transformation in order to produce food, goods and services for a fast-urbanising society,” Mr Dlamini said.
Online Reporter