Govts urged to take intra-Africa trade seriously
Investment banker, Dr Samuel Ankrah, has stressed the need for governments of African countries to get over the factors that impede their growth to increase trade among themselves.
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“For years, intra-African trade has been constrained by lack of infrastructure, the political hangovers of the Cold War era and by the failure of many African economies to move from primary commodity production to semi-processed or fully finished products, and in particular, to the manufacturing of products tailored for African markets,” he said.
Dr Ankrah, who made the call at the maiden Impact Africa Summit Ghana on July 7, said the relative decline of Africa’s traditional export partners in the industrialised world had been sped up by continuous strong growth in much of Asia. This has fostered rapidly rising trade volumes between Asia and Africa, plus much greater Asian investment in Africa.
“Many African countries have not fully capitalised on their neighbours’ growth. While trade with Asian markets have increased rapidly, intra-African trade remains a relatively small proportion of total African trade – around 13.5 per cent according to World Trade Organisation (WTO) figures”, he said.
Dr Ankrah noted that the missing link had more to do with intra-African trade, which when increased, could turn the fortunes of the continent around for the better.
Appointments
Dr Ankrah called on the government to appoint persons to man state-owned institutions purely based on merit and not as a result of political affiliations.
Making specific reference to the establishment of Ghana’s Exim Bank, he said, appointing the right calibre of Ghanaians to serve on such important institutions would be the best way to enable those appointees to succeed.
“The Exim bank concept is fantastic and the government requires a lot of commendation for setting it up”, he said and added that “all Ghanaians need is for the government to ensure that the people appointed to run the bank at the board and executive levels have the expertise to make it succeed because through that we can help alleviate poverty from the society”.
Dr Ankrah, who is also the founder of the New Africa Mobility Fund (NAM) - established to contribute and align investments towards upward mobility across the African landscape, bemoaned the fact that “the creation of EXIM Bank by the government is a laudable project which needs to be applauded by us all. However we can only hope and pray that the purpose for which it was set up will be maintained so that we do not deviate from its core values/purposes and also become a benefit to only ‘certain people’.”
Transformation
On the transformation of Africa and for that matter Ghana, he said, “we should focus on supporting development opportunities, enhancing economic opportunities by reducing vulnerability of the poor along with providing a consistent long term return to our investments.”
Dr Ankrah said in pushing towards Ghana’s agenda to transform the future of the country and Africa as a whole, there was the need to foster development across the entire spectrum.
“We all know there are many other areas to consider in this quest. However one key area which has built and continue to build all other continents is still missing here and not promoted in all our endeavours” he said.
Sustainable Development Goals
On the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Dr Ankrah said the concept made a strong case for engaging businesses, not governments, even though the latter remained a key stakeholder in the delivery of its goals.
He said the UN General Assembly had endorsed a framework for financing development by providing a strong foundation to support implementation of the post 2015 development agenda which would include a new global framework for financing sustainable development by aligning all financing flows and policies with economic, social and environmental priorities’.
He prescribed the antidotes the government needed to unlock the transformative potential of the private sector such as inviting businesses to apply their creativity and innovation toward solving sustainable development challenges and to engage as partners in the development process.
Dr Ankrah said placing emphasis on country-level leadership to build ownership and ensure prioritisation of goals and targets in local context was also critical. — GB
