aurora
Business Writer
AFRICAN countries should do more to widen development benefits to be realised from each other through embracing the regional drive towards economic integration, Pan African Manufacturers Association (PAMA) interim president, Engineer Mansur Ahmed, has said.
The region, led by the African Union (AU) is already pushing adoption of a common trading zone under the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement, which came into force early last year.
Eng Ahmed, who is Intra Africa Trade Fair (IATF) Ambassador, told Business Chronicle in an interview that the continent has to move with speed and invest more in developing internal capacities that create strong regional value chains. This includes enhancing skills and knowledge sharing, which are critical in building a solid production base.
“We recognise that we are Africans but we remained isolated countries and the level of appreciation of what we share and potential from all of us has been very low until very recently when a new crop of leaders came in,” said Eng Ahmed.
He said African nations should be able to priorities economic kingdom before political kingdom, which is a source of conflicts on its own.
Conventions like the IATF and other initiatives like the AfCFTA as well as the African Union Agenda 2063, are among the steps being taken by the continent as it seeks to benefit from each other.
Organised by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the African Union (AU) and the AfCFTA secretariat, the second Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF 2021) took place in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa from November 15 to 21, 2021.
The convention saw about US$42.1 billion worth of trade and investment deals being sealed by African countries.
Eng Ahmed also heaped praises on the regional leadership for realising the importance of forging economic ties and exhibiting political will towards regional integration.
“The new African leaders like President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Nigerian Muhammadu Buhari as well as Southern African President Cyril Ramaphosa amongst others are now creating and spearheading forums where business can be discussed rather than the pre-independence and recent post-independence leaders who focused more on political gains,” he said.
“This has seen forums like the IATF being organized so that one country can benefit from another.”
Eng Ahmed said going forward African countries should identify their strength and weaknesses and see how each country can work with another to develop that strength.
“Cote d’Ivoire has been known for producing cocoa but they have not been able to produce chocolate. If they partner with another African country, they can be bale to add value to their cocoa and start producing chocolate,” he said.
If Africans unite economically, former colonial masters would not be exploiting the continent of its resources at the expense of the economy, Eng Ahmed added.
He stressed the need to drive regional integration with a focus on value addition and producing competitive goods that are marketable not only in Africa but globally.
“We should be able to integrate the isolated 55 African countries into smaller regional blocks like Comesa and Sadc that can share ideas and produce competitive products that are globally marketable,” said Eng Ahmed.
Bongani Ndlovu