19 Jul 2016

The Vice President, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi, says the 27th African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government Summit in Rwanda, over the weekend, was successful.
In a post-summit interview, Mr Masisi, said the summit made recommendations on a number of issues that would take the continent to greater heights.
He said one of the key issues agreed by the leaders focused on how Africa should finance the operational activities of the AU commission.
“We agreed that a regular budgeting system should be developed that involves ministers of finance,” he said.
The VP said from inception, African Union relied heavily on funding from external donors which accounted to about 70 per cent of the union’s budget and that undermined the union’s independence.
“The union this time around has resolved to rid itself of the dependence on foreign donors for funding. This issue has always dominated our previous summits,” he said, adding that the implementation of budgeting had always been a challenge because part of the problem had been coming up with the modalities of how member states should finance the union.
He said this time around, through a dedicated committee they had been able to come up with, a percentage of some eligible imports would be taxed at 0.2 per cent.
Although Botswana agreed with the model, Mr Masisi said the country noted that due diligence was necessary because if imports were to be taxed at the rate of 0.2 per cent, the union might yield more money on an annual basis that significantly exceeded the budgetary requirements of AU.
An assurance from a committee of experts that the excess would be remitted to regional economic groupings also raised the question of development on unnecessary bureaucratic red tape and a risk being opened up for funds not ending up where they ought to be.
He said the recommendation endorsed in such a decision was that ministers of finances should be brought closer to the budgetary processes of the union.
“As you know, in Botswana, we are strict in our budgetary controls, we would like to be seen to be frugal and we will interrogate this thoroughly,” he said
He said there was also the launch of Smart Africa initiative in which one of the projects was to realise comparability in cost between countries and that the initiative was working in countries such as Gabon, Rwanda and Burkina Faso where the cost of making telephone calls were kept constant irrespective of roaming between the two countries, which resulted in a reduction.
Botswana’s Permanent Ambassador at the African Union in Ethiopia, Ms Mmamosadinyana Molefe said a among the issues discussed was the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD) that is envisaged to leverage efforts of industrialisation and the continent’s programmes.
She said special focus was on agro-processing through agriculture at all scales; small, medium and large scale, as well as the markets.
During the summit, the Pan-Arican Passport was also launched, which she said was seen as a key ingredient that will strengthen integration.
However, she noted that the passport would be given to heads of state and government, ministers and ambassadors, but will not replace the national passports. ENDS