African leaders have been cautioned by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), to move past the days of waiting for aid from developed countries and instead be resourceful with the continent’s own resources.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
Citing financial mismanagement, U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) would cease operations worldwide.
This comes after Republican lawmaker Scott Perry of the United States claimed that Boko Haram terrorist groups were armed with USAID monies. Former Nigerian Finance Minister Okonjo-Iweala discussed the situation with reporters at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, saying that African leaders need to look within for financial sources for the continent.
In light of the difficulties presented by the suspension of billions of dollars in international assistance for health and education programs in numerous nations, the former World Bank developmental economist stresses that Africa needs to change its mindset in order to see chances.
In order to negotiate the current social and economic realities impacted by the Trump administration’s policies, Okonjo-Iweala claimed that African leaders must concentrate on luring investment and organizing resources. One of the most important things that is coming out, she said, is an understanding of the really challenging geopolitical environment we are currently in. Naturally, I am in the center of everything as the head of the WTO. However, one thing is extremely evident.
“Africa, we truly must shift our perspective. I believe we may start to consider assistance access to be a thing of the past. We actually need to concentrate on two things: harnessing our own domestic resources and luring in investment. And I believe that’s a recurring element in practically every meeting that takes place here at the AU. I believe that African leaders are realizing how difficult this is. However, we can also view it as a chance.
“Africa, we truly must shift our perspective. I believe we may start to consider assistance access to be a thing of the past. We actually need to concentrate on two things: harnessing our own domestic resources and luring in investment. And I believe that’s a recurring element in practically every meeting that takes place here at the AU. I believe that African leaders are realizing how difficult this is. However, we can also view it as a chance.
And once more, I’m happy to report that this look is starting to emerge; this may be viewed as a chance. We met this morning with President Mahama and the Multilateral Development Bank Association of Africa itself. Among the topics we discussed was how to better leverage the continent’s own resources for self-investment. I made the point that we must figure out how to access the roughly $250 billion in pension fund resources that are available on the continent.
Okonjo-Iweala emphasized, “We Have The Institutions, Capitalize On Them.” The head of the World Trade Organization emphasized that rather than waiting for assistance, Africa had to make the most of its institutions and allocate its resources wisely for growth. The pension funds must first examine their policies to see how they may be changed to allow them to invest more on the continent rather than more abroad, Okonjo-Iweala continued. Although South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, Botswana, Namibia, and many other nations have pension plans, South Africa’s is the largest.
It’s enormously important when you start adding up the resources. I have an estimate of 250 billion. The African Finance Corporation is one of the multilateral development banks that we have. The Association of African Multilateral Institutions is chaired by Afrexim Bank. “We must make greater use of them. We have our own institutions rather than looking outside to see what we can acquire. The governments of Africa are the stockholders. Make sure they have enough capital so that their balance sheet may grow.
Now, their total balance sheet is worth roughly 70 billion. However, it is clear that we need to increase the balance sheets of these organizations if you compare the $70 billion to the needs we have for infrastructure alone, which amount to over $200 billion annually. “Aside from the international, we have over 84 national development banks and financial institutions.
“How can we better capitalize and deploy them to assist us with financing? When I served as Nigeria’s finance minister, we successfully raised $300 million for a diaspora bond.You can use that kind of tool to access our people’s resources both inside and outside of the continent. We can raise resources in a variety of inventive and imaginative methods.I have one last thing to say. The understanding that we must more effectively add value and monetize the continent’s mineral riches is another topic running through this meeting.
To process them elsewhere, they will no longer come to dig our resource. Okonjo Iweala maintains that all resources extracted from Africa will now be processed on the continent when the right procedures are followed, since this will boost commerce and provide more jobs.
Nearly all heads of state are discussing significant discoveries of lithium, manganese, copper, and numerous other elements that are required for the production of electric batteries and automobiles, she said. “This continent is home to them. How to draw in the correct investments to create value is the problem. They don’t come to extract the resources, mine them, and then process them elsewhere. In order to boost our trade and provide more jobs for us, they must be handled on the continent.
We must expand our economies, increase commerce, improve the quality of our goods, and increase trade if we are to be able to finance ourselves. At the WTO, we’re working to identify the obstacles that occasionally prohibit us from exporting our value additions in the manner we desire.What are those obstacles? And Africa will have a rare chance to discuss such obstacles at our 14th ministerial next year, which will take place in Cameroon. “And for us at the WTO to put in a lot of effort to ensure that we reduce them in order to have a higher percentage of both intra-African and global trade.”CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
