07 Dec 2023

Sustainable mineral beneficiation and value chain development is a crucial component as the continent aspires to reach the goals of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 blueprint for continental development, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has said. 

Making his submission during the Presidential Roundtable at the Kusi Ideas Festival held at Royal Aria in Tlokweng yesterday, Dr Masisi said Africa needed to ensure optimal benefit from its natural resources, and cited efforts the country had engaged in towards attaining that ideal.

He said while Botswana had engaged in diamond mineral exploitation from the immediate aftermath of independence, and in recent years, the country saw the need to ensure that the latest renegotiated mining and sales agreement led to better gain for the country.

This involved ensuring the country extracts more from diamond sales, the investment in human capital as well as in mineral beneficiation.

Dr Masisi said diversifying business partners in the mining sector was also important for African countries to explore, and in negotiating mineral deals, advised that ‘you should never retreat in the quest for what is best for your country and people’.

President Masisi accentuated the importance of the peace dividend as well as certainty in policy promulgation that gives domestic business and external investors clarity and confidence.

Zimbabwe President, Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa said Africa’s leaders should champion the continental course and gain validation from Africans as opposed to gaining praise from the Global North.

He said the founding leaders of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, now the AU) were visionary Pan-Africanists who stressed the need for the continent to pool its resources together.

Mr Mnangagwa urged the current generation of African leaders to emulate that approach and work towards utilising the continent’s resources to develop, modernise and industrialise the continent.

He cited agriculture and mining as among the key mainstays of the Zimbabwean economy, stating that the country had a structured agricultural development policy that addressed both national food security through large scale commercial farming as well as household need through smaller scale subsistence farming.

The Prime Minister of Rwanda, Dr Edouard Ngirente said accountability in governance and public finance management was very important for Africa’s development, and cited that as having been crucial to Rwanda’s economic growth, and citizens’ improved access to social goods and rising life expectancy.

He added that agricultural development and food security was important for social development adding that government had prioritised the accessibility and affordability of basic food items to citizens.

Dr Ngirente said Rwanda had invested in food production, improving road networks to markets, national electrification as well as information and communication technology.

The deputy Prime Minister of Tanzania, Dr Doto Biteko, said they had worked on the domestication of the AU Agenda 2063, including improving human resource capacity, through the construction of schools and vocational training centres across the country.

He said Tanzania had also invested in expanding their agricultural sector, leading to the country becoming a net food exporter to African markets such as South Africa and Kenya. Ends