The Sunday Mail
Vision 2030 Allen Choruma
Africa is a diverse and resource-rich continent made up of 54 countries and 1,3 billion people, the majority (70 percent or about a billion) of whom are youths below the age of 25.
African Union (AU) statistics show that Africa has about 12 percent of the world’s oil reserves, 42 percent of its gold, 80 percent to 90 percent of chromium and platinum group metals, and 60 percent of arable land, in addition to other resources.
The bulk of these resources are exported out of Africa as primary low-value commodities mainly to developed countries in Europe, United States of America (USA), China, Japan and South Korea, which creates industries, millions of job opportunities and drives growth in those economies.
Global interest on Africa is presently rising.
Mainstream international media houses have created special programmes on Africa as a result.
This renewed global interest in Africa is not driven by the love of “beautiful African landscapes and animals”, but by its natural resources.
What we are witnessing is a global scramble for African resources.
The West’s interests in Africa have not changed for centuries — they are resource-driven.
Initially, Western interests were in African people, who were treated as commodities, chained, loaded into ships like sardines and turned into slaves to work in plantations, factories and mines in the West, including its Caribbean and South American colonies and North America.
This was followed by the colonisation of Africa with the objective of grabbing its resources, for free, to drive Western industrialisation and growth.
While slavery and colonialism ended, the interest in African resources unfortunately remains.
Slavery and colonialism have morphed and are coming in new forms.
In view of this global surge in interest in the continent, African countries should place stringent conditions on their extraction and, above all, fight corruption to ensure that these resources are guarded jealously for the benefit of African people.
Economic and social transformation in Africa can only be driven by indigenous Africans.
Vision 2030 Allen Choruma
African leaders need to develop smart politics, development programmes and strategies that work for Africa and serve African interests.
It is time Africans become selfish and use their abundant natural resources for their benefit.
We own these resources and it is high time we leverage on them to build industries at home and create jobs and opportunities for our youthful African population.
For us to emerge as a modern, diverse and vibrant continent, we need to reshape our economic contours and modernise our economies.
Although Africa’s combined economy is projected by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to contract between 1,7 percent and 3,4 percent this year, the lender maintains the continent will be the next growth frontier.
Disrupting colonial economic models
Worryingly, although African resources — both mineral and agricultural — are in high demand globally, they haven’t materially changed the circumstances of ordinary African people.
Colonial models that perpetuate the export of low-value primary products that are susceptible to price volatility are still in place in most African countries.
This model worked well for Western countries who built factories, created jobs in their own backyards and then produced finished products which were resold back to Africa at higher prices.
This “resource extraction” colonial model will likely keep African countries poor and underdeveloped.
African countries need to change this model and change it now.
Initiatives such as the African Union (AU)’s commodities strategy, “Value Addition for Global Competitiveness”, which seek to leverage and add value to Africa’s unique natural resources, are a game-changer if African countries implement them to the letter and spirit.
African countries need to design and implement home-grown strategies geared to maximise benefit for their resources.
Deals with foreign investors should not concentrate on resource extraction.
We need smart partnerships, win-win deals with investors that focus on capital transfer, beneficiation, building industries, knowledge and technology transfer, skills training and so on.
Our resources should help us industrialise Africa.
We should manufacture machinery from our iron and steel, batteries from nickel, cobalt and lithium, chocolates from cocoa, fruit juices from our fruits, petrochemicals and fertilisers from our oil.
Intra-African trade
According to Afreximbank, intra-African trade was a paltry 15 percent (or US$170 billion) of total continental trade in 2018, compared to intra-European trade at 70 percent or US$6 trillion.
These figures are pathetic and show that African countries are barely trading among themselves.
Clearly, the future of African growth and social transformation hinges on industrialisation and intra-African trade.
Africa has great potential if it unites, integrates, removes political borders (a product of 1884 Berlin Conference) and allow free movement of people, goods, services, labour and capital.
ACFTA
The African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA), which was launched at the 12th Extraordinary Summit of the African Union (AU) in Niamey, Niger, in July 2019, is a milestone set to break barriers that inhibit trade, co-operation and development among African countries.
Although it was set to become operational in July 2020, the time-lines have been derailed by the emergence of Covid-19.
Ghana is hosting the ACFTA Secretariat. Currently, the continental free trade area is the world’s biggest economic trading bloc, with a combined GDP of US$3,4 trillion.
Other continental initiatives such as the Single African Monetary Union (SAMU), Single African Settlement and Payment System (SASPS), and Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) should be implemented to complement the AFCTA.
Although SAATM, which seeks to open African skies, improve connectivity, reduce flying time and costs for air travel, was signed on January 29, 2018, its implementation is slow.
SAATM will strengthen ACFTA, whose success depends on the free movement of people, goods and services across Africa.
Alternative development partners
As African countries work towards integration of their economies, they will need to partner with reliable development partners.
African countries have now come to realise that Western development finance comes with a lot of strings attached to it.
Besides China, African countries are also extending their trading partnerships with other countries around the globe.
India
According to Afreximbank (Africa) and Exim Bank (India) 2018 report, “Developing South-South Collaboration: An Analysis of Africa and India’s Trade and Investment”, India-Africa trade between 2001 and 2014 increased tenfold, making India Africa’s fourth-largest trading partner.
Africa now accounts close to 10 percent of India’s total external trade.
Japan
In September 2019, Japan successfully hosted the Tokyo International Conference on Africa Development (TICAD), which showed strong intent to partner with African countries in their quest for development.
A rich and prosperous African continent can only be created if we use our enormous resource base to industrialise our economies and create wealth, jobs and opportunities for our people.
If African countries industrialise and implement AU integration initiatives like ACFTA, Africa has the potential to grow its economy within a short space of time and emerge as a vibrant, rich and prosperous continent.
Allen Choruma can be contacted on email: [email protected]
