adminThe biggest question was no longer “can” Africa grow, but “how” the continent will grow.
Participants deliberated on various issues including the removal of bottlenecks affecting infrastructure development.
About 51 projects have been identified which include power generation and transportation, water and telecommunications, with an overall capital cost of US$68 billion between now and 2020.
Power generation alone accounts for 15 projects and transportation for 24 projects.
African Development Bank president Mr Donald Kaberuka told the participants that the regional bank was planning to develop the infrastructure financing instrument.
Mr Kaberuka said over-reliance on foreign aid to fund the continent’s infrastructure projects was not sustainable.
He said dependence on donor aid to fund infrastructure by some states “should be discouraged and we have to figure out how to use the extensive resources of this continent for its own transformation”.
In a lively discussion on the role of business and civil society in governance, leaders challenged African state and non-state actors to use new found transparency initiatives to change, rather than accept, bad behaviour.
Business leaders also agreed that agriculture needed to be regarded as an economic sector rather than a social enterprise if the continent is to become a trillion- dollar food market and net importer of food by 2030.
It was noted that improved agricultural efficiencies and productivity would boost intra-regional trade, currently below 10 percent of Africa’s total trade, by creating bigger markets within Africa for both fresh and processed agricultural products.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said African states should work towards more integration.
He said East African countries once saw each other as competitors, but there was now much closer co-operation between member states.
“I see in the next 50 years our ability to have our regional trading blocs becoming much more integrated, moving in the East African Community towards a single currency. Removing the non-trade barriers that exist, attracting investment not from a Kenyan perspective but from a regional perspective,” said Kenyatta.
SA Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said African countries could sustain their economies without foreign aid if measures were to be put in place to plug in leakages leading to revenue loss from its natural resources.
Mr Gordhan said the continent had adequate resources to improve the lives of its one billion people.
A report by African Progress Panel released at the WEF showed Africa could be losing twice as much in illicit financial outflows as it got from financial donors.
Nigerian Minister of Finance and Co-ordination Dr Okonjo Iweala applauded the impressive growth of Africa’s economy, but expressed concern over inequalities associated with such growth.
She said while Africa had been enjoying successive growth in the past decade, this had not translated to improved standards on living.
“We have had a couple of days of very exciting conversations about what is happening on the continent,” said Mr Eric Kacou, co-founder of Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners of the US. Mr Kacou is also a young global leader and member of the Global Agenda Council on Fostering Entrepreneurship.
“I think in Africa we are in the middle of a metamorphosis. People are just starting to recognise there is potential,” he said
South African President Jacob Zuma said the fact that his country hosted the recent Brics summit was an indication of how much the African continent had changed.
Mr Borge Brende, managing director and a board member of the WEF, said “the era of pessimism is over in Africa. The African lions are growing even faster than the Asian tigers,” he said.
“But if this growth is not invested in human capital and diversifying economies, we will lose out on the opportunity. There is a lot of optimism, but also a lot of realism.”
Articulating that realism, Mr Martyn Davies, chief executive of Frontier Advisory of South Africa who is also a member of the Global Agenda Council on China, spelt out the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Mr Davies said the growth was not being re-invested in development, while Africa needs to offer “better enabling environments” for industrialisation to capitalise on opportunities.
Consultant (strategy and development) with Attijariwafa Bank of Morocco Younes Slaoui said Africa “needs to have inclusive and high-value growth”.
“It’s not only about GDP. We need to have competitiveness,” said Slaoui while calling for greater regional integration, as well as investments in social entrepreneurship and industry to promote inclusive growth and fight poverty.
Online Reporter