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explore the topic for this y e a r ’s a n n i v e r s a r y ‘Beyond Politics: An Economic Narrative for West Africa’ is because we need to aggressively position our economies for growth in other to provide more employment avenues for our growing populations. To do this, we must change our existing economic models and paradigms. Africa with its urbanizing population must look more to developing its service and digital economies faster. This sector of the economy, if nurtured, is prone to fast growth and can provide employment for millions of young Africans coming out of school. Great potential for growth also exists in tourism, the creative industry, ICT, and financial services. In my country Ghana, as in Nigeria and other African countries, the services sector has overtaken agriculture as the largest and fastest growing sector of the economy. African countries must create the right environment for these to grow through tax incentives, reduced regulation and red tape. We must change our model of being producers of raw commodities. Africa’s gold must reach the rest of the world as valuable jewelry, her oil must arrive as petroleum products, her timber as furniture, her cocoa as chocolates, bauxite as aluminum and copper as semi-conductor parts.
Va l u e a d d i t i o n a n d processing will provide more wealth for African economies and millions of jobs for our young people. To achieve this, Africa must invest in making power more available for domestic, industrial and agricultural use. While Africa cannot follow the model of the past industrial revolutions that have polluted and threaten the very existence of our planet, cleaner forms of energy, including gas-fired thermal, hydro,
economies. Investment in social and economic infrastructure is imperative. We must make the big push, especially in the transport s e c t o r. R o a d , r a i l , maritime, aviation must all receive priority attention in order to ensure efficient movement of passengers and goods both within and between our countries. This will enhance trade and services across the West African sub-region. Sometimes trade between
to port and avoid the torturous long journey by road and most especially avoid the hundreds of check points that extort money from motorists. Tr a d e b e t w e e n t h e Lagos-Abidjan Corridor could be a potentially very viable route. We must aggressively pursue the dream of a Continental Free Trade Area. This is a dream our founding fathers fought for. Having served as Chairman of the African Union High-Level
solar and wind energy are areas we must aggressively invest in. Nigeria must as a priority aggressively pursue a gasto-power policy and stop the flaring of almost 300 billion standard cubic feet of gas per annum representing a loss of almost $700 million a year. Africa must support the Inga dam and other potential hydro power projects, which could bring about an additional 40,000 MW of power to South, East, West and Central African
African countries is curtailed because there is just no transport link between them. Where the roads exist, they are in many cases so bad that they do not facilitate efficient exchange of goods between them. West Africa must consider a ‘Roll-on Roll-off’ ferry between coastal countries. This kind of service is used as an e ff i c i e n t a n d c h e a p transport link in many parts of Asia and Europe. Vehicles and goods are moved by ferry from port
Committee on Trade beforee, I was privileged to participate in the work leading up to the signing of the agreement on A C f TA . I h a v e a n abiding belief in its benefit for all African nations. Trade between African countries, reports say, stands at about 11%. Comparable statistics with other regions are:the Americas at 47%, Asia 61%, Europe 67% and Oceania 7%. Intra African trade will
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