24 Nov 2022

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi arrived in Niger yesterday for the African Union’s (AU) 17th extraordinary summit on industrialisation and economic diversification scheduled for today.

He was welcomed at Niamey’s Diorhi Hamani Internationale Airport by Niger’s prime minister, Mr Mouhoumoudou Mahamadou, Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Mmusi Kgafela, Botswana’s ambassador to Ethiopia also AU permanent representative,  Mr Zenene Sinombe.

Prior to President Masisi’s arrival, Minister Kgafela and his counterparts from other African countries met as a curtain-raiser to the main activities of the summit themed, Industrialising Afrcia: Renewed Commitments towards Inclusive and Sustainable Industrialisation and Economic Diversification.

Briefing the media, Mr Kgafela said the summit was aimed at fast tracking the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement AfCFTA agenda as well as industrialising Africa. 

He said AfCFTA was aimed at encouraging African nations to improve trade amongst themselves following the realisation that individual countries had trade agreements/relations with European states and the United States but not with fellow Africans.

According to Minister Kgafela, the situation, which was still prevailing, was not in any way beneficial in terms of improving and diversifying the continent’s economy.  

As a result, though Africa was endowed with abundant natural resources, it was still suffering from the challenge of poverty, he said.

AfCFTA, the minister said, was a way of coordinating all activities aimed at domesticating trade relations and diversification of the African economy through industrialisation. 

Economic diversification was of primary importance to industrialisation, he said. 

“The whole idea is for African to engage in business that will be competitive and compete on an equal footing within themselves and with those of other continents,” said Mr Kgafela. 

He said in the past, Africa exported raw materials which were converted into finished products elsewhere and ultimately came back to Africa at exorbitant prices.  

The intention was therefore to improve manufacturing, producing finished goods with added value and therefore exporting them in a profitable state, the minister stated.

 He said Africa was determined to industrialise because without industrialisation, the continent would continue to be a weak player in any trade agreement or discourse.

‘If you want to empower any country, region it will only be done through industrialisation. If you want to disempower any region or continent you do so by de-industrialising,” he said.

  On the issue of funding, Minister Kgafela said Africa planned cutting on borrowing funds from other continents and  switching to getting loans from the likes of Afreximbank and African Development Bank.  

 He said loans acquired from outside the continent always had strings attached. 

Turning to Botswana,  he said the country was in the process of developing policies and programmes aimed at not only pushing the national agenda but would feed into regional strategies through Southern Africa Customs Union and SADC and ultimately the continent’s vision.

He said the 2014 Industrial Development Policy was up for review as it did not talk to the concept of knowledge economy.  

Therefore, Mr Kgafela said it was important for the business sector to be enhanced through knowledge and upskilling to equip them for producing globally competitive products and services.

The summit, to be officially opened by  Senegalese  president and AU chairperson, Mr Macky Sall, will consider a report of the joint meeting of industry and economy ministers. ENDS