Akinwumi Adesina is running for President of AfDB. He was a Most-Valuable Player on the Nigerian Federal Cabinet, so I say yes, hope he gets the job.
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Speech by Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Nigerian
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and candidate for
President of the African Development Bank
Delivered at the Business Council for Africa’s Annual Debate
21 April 2015
Africa is experiencing a never-before-seen economic and political
transformation. Five of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies are
located here. It has rightfully created tremendous excitement not only
within our borders, but around the world.
While there are many reasons to celebrate the improved economic
performance, daunting challenges remain and troubling trends have
emerged.
We are facing widening economic and social inequalities that have
resulted from non-inclusive growth. Africa’s poverty rates are still the
highest in the world. Despite gains that have been made, the reality is
that 44% of Africans still live on less than $1.25 per day.
These are struggles I know. I grew up in poverty, the son of a farmer
who worked for less than 10 cents per day. I was one of the lucky few
to attain education and opportunity. I don’t want my story to be the
exception, I want the cycle of poverty to be broken across Africa. Our
economic success needs to be shared – with prosperity for all – creating
a more equal, stable, and peaceful continent. Nothing is more important
than putting an end to poverty.
We are also facing rapid urbanization that will determine the resilience of the growth process.
We have exceedingly high levels of unemployment – which leads to social, political, and economic fragility.
Fragility is on the rise. 53% of Africa’s nations are fragile states.
Fragility, joblessness, and economic and political exclusion breed
terrorism. We need to tackle the fundamentals of fragility.
We are on the receiving end of climate change. Although Africa has
done little to contribute to the damage, we are suffering heavily from
the effects of it. We are paying a disproportionate price for climate
change.
While we should celebrate our achievements, we also need to recognize
that these key challenges must be tackled head-on by the African
Development Bank. We need to renew our commitment to addressing these
together – with both regional and non-regional members. As we do so, the
Bank will grow into its role as the premier finance institution on the
continent.
That is why I am running for president of the African Development Bank.
To make progress, the next President must not only understand the
merits of a policy or strategy, but how to translate it into action on
the ground. This is something I have done over the course of my career.
I’ve implemented innovative finance schemes in several African
countries – from Uganda to Tanzania, Kenya to Mozambique, Ghana to
Nigeria. I’ve helped to leverage over $4 billion from commercial banks
to finance agricultural SMEs. And I launched an electronic wallet
program which helped to end corruption in the fertilizer sector in
Nigeria, and has reached 14.5 million farmers and impacted 50 million
people. These are programs that have real impact on the ground.
Having lived and worked in 15 African countries, including 10 years
in francophone countries, I have experienced firsthand the complexities
of what our continent needs.
Too often our decisions are driven more by our own political
interests or policy preferences, when it should be driven by the needs
of those we are seeking to empower. This is particularly important when
speaking about a continent so ecologically, socially, and economically
diverse as Africa. There is no one solution or quick fix.
First and foremost, the question is: what kind of Africa do we want?
I want an Africa with inclusive and sustainable growth, and
one that is globally competitive. As President, I will focus on five
strategic priorities: integrated infrastructure, private sector growth,
increased employment opportunities, reviving the rural economy and
regional integration.
The focus, across the board, will also be on scaling programs that
have delivered results —tangible outcomes, not merely outputs.
Across all the priority areas, we need to strengthen integrity,
transparency and accountability. We will demand of ourselves the same
thing as we demand of our countries. We must manage our resources well,
and we must always examine our actions from the perspective of the
public. We must put people first, because ultimately we are investing in
a better future for them.
Let me speak briefly to the priority areas.
We need to minimize the global widening of the infrastructure gap.
There’s no lack of ideas about what Africa needs to do on infrastructure
– the key is how you turn them into bankable projects. We need smart
projects.
In infrastructure, the players are many but they are not
coordinated. The Bank can play that role effectively: funneling money to
the right priority areas. The Bank should engage all domestic, regional
and international partners – including established partners, like the
World Bank, and newly emerging players, like BRICS’ new development
bank.
I will also lead the bank to focus on rapidly building
infrastructure for small and fragile states.
We need to mobilize greater resources to finance infrastructure in
Africa. To manage that effectively will require $93 billion per year and
will require mobilizing domestic resources, private sector funds, and
multilateral financing. Leveraging capital markets is crucial to
improving our approach to infrastructure.
We need to prioritize the kind of infrastructure projects that will
help us deliver “power-for-all” – universal access to electricity.
Access to power is absolutely vital to Africa’s development. Africa has
50% of the world’s renewable energy, but it remains largely untapped.
Developing energy infrastructure will drive rapid economic and social
development. We should target investment toward renewable energy –
solar, hydropower, geothermal, wind. And we should have a two track
approach - supporting a combination of large, transformative regional
power projects and smaller projects that can be implemented more quickly
to create immediate impact in local communities.
Africa’s private sector accounts for 70 percent of investment, 70
percent of output and 90 percent of employment. The private sector can
drive industrialization in Africa and unlock wealth at all levels of
society. The Bank needs to develop its private sector operations.
Back in 2005, the Bank was lending $250 million. By 2013, it was
lending $2.1 billion. Clearly, a lot is being done in private sector,
but it is still not meeting the needs. For inclusive growth, we have to
direct financing to empower entrepreneurship for those that impact the
majority of the population – SMEs in the private sector. As President,
I
will work to build the financial intermediaries needed to deliver
affordable financing to African companies. We will establish business
development advisory services targeted at positioning SMEs to secure
venture capital and private equity funds.
The equity capital market accounts for $1.5 trillion per year, but
these funds are heavily concentrated in just three countries: South
Africa, Nigeria, and Namibia. We need to deepen the market to mobilize
financing – we need to get these funds to smaller and fragile countries.
It can’t all go to the same three places, that’s not real progress.
We also need to mobilize domestic resources. Non-regional donors must
have a leveraging effect. There are a lot of domestic resources in
Africa: such as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and diaspora
funds – and we have to unlock them. We have $158 billion in sovereign
wealth funds alone. We need to put it to good use.
And we need to prioritize blended finance - combining public and
private financing - to reduce risk exposure to the private sector.
We need to work with governments to lower the cost of doing business
across Africa. Currently 18 out of the 25 least competitive countries
are in Africa. This needs to change. Enabling the private sector will
increase the opportunities in the job market. Changes need to be made to
address the fact that the economic growth we have today is jobless
growth. And we need to pay special attention to unemployment among two
populations: youth and women.
30 million youths enter the market annually, and we need to create
jobs for them. This is not just an economic priority. It is a security
investment. Without jobs, we face economic, social, and political risks.
As many of you know, the majority of youth who turn to violence have no
job—and seemingly no options. 50% of young fighters in Sierra Leone and
Liberia participated in the violence because they didn’t have jobs.
And we’re facing a migration crisis – largely due to an absence of
jobs for our young people. I want to build an Africa that keeps and
attracts talented, hardworking people. Our people should not be boarding
ships, putting themselves at incredible risk, in search of hope and a
chance to make something of their lives. That’s why I believe we must
build a more prosperous continent that will give hope and opportunities
to tens of millions of our youth. We want an Africa where they want to
stay, not an Africa they want to move away from.
You can’t develop without women. Investing in women is not just the
right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do. Women are the primary
source for growth in local economies. Yet today, 64 million more women
than men are unemployed in Africa. And if we don’t address women’s
unemployment, we’re not going to make a dent in the broader unemployment
crisis. Women need access to education, technology, jobs, and
financing.
As president, I will lead the African Development Bank to implement
an Annual Gender Score Card and an African Women Empowerment Index,
because we shouldn’t just talk about women empowerment – we should
actually do it and measure that we’re doing it well.
And with 50% of Africa’s farmers being women, we must commit to
reviving the rural economies for their benefit as much as anyone else’s.
We need to change the way we see agriculture – it’s not merely about
development, it’s an economic driver. If you use agriculture as an
engine to revive rural economies you create new prosperity zones for the
people and that will have an impact on reducing insecurity problems.
Africa has 65% of all the arable land left to feed the 9 billion
people in the world by 2050. Transforming the agriculture sector will
have the largest impact on inclusive growth on the continent, given that
70-80% of the labor force is engaged in the sector but are locked into
poverty.
We must provide innovative financing instruments and direct private
equity funds toward agribusiness investment.
By reviving rural economies
and empowering them with tools to connect their goods to viable
markets, we will unlock incredible opportunities for growth, ensure
equitable growth and realize the promise of a shared prosperity—as we
lift millions out of poverty.
We need to diversify the economies in African countries that are rich
in natural resources, to shield them from over-exposure to volatilities
in global markets (as we saw recently with falling oil prices).
Focusing on unlocking agriculture’s potential will go a long way toward
diversification and building "soil wealth" rather than relying on oil
and mineral wealth.
Much of Africa’s growth is due to commodities and high extractive
rates. Focusing on exporting our abundance of raw commodities makes
African economies vulnerable to volatilities in commodities prices.
Unless this is changed, Africa is like a giant with feet of clay. We
need to lead these countries toward diversification. And agriculture is
key.
We also need to improve management of those natural resources –
transparency and accountability must be enforced.
Africa is not poor,
but its people are poor because money disappears. That needs to change.
Africa is rich in natural resources, with $85 trillion in discovered
resources, but it loses $60 billion per year in illicit outflows. We
need to work on all levels to enforce transparency and accountability.
This money should be going to development – to advancing healthcare and
education in our communities. Imagine what that $60 billion could do for
our people each year. Africa’s resources should not belong to the few,
but should be for the benefit of all.
We need to reduce inequalities in economic prosperity among countries
in the region. We should integrate our region. Economies that focus on
regional markets are less vulnerable to price fluctuations.
The world’s
most prosperous trading blocs are heavy on interregional trade.
Landlocked countries need to be connected to coastal ports through
investment in transnational infrastructure, especially highways,
trans-boundary water basins, and railway, maritime, and air transport
systems. We must deliver integrated infrastructure and eliminate
barriers – this will expand the size of the regional markets and reduce
the cost of movement of goods, services and people, creating a more open
Africa.
I know the roadmap toward that vision for Africa is challenging, but
we are already seeing tremendous progress, and we now have the
confidence to achieve even greater results.
We need to build a Bank with a pulse for Africa’s people. A Bank that
is more impact-oriented, efficient and responsive to the needs of its
clients in a rapidly changing, multilateral economic landscape. A Bank
that will be the partner of choice for all things African development.
We must build an Africa that will unlock greater opportunities with
hope and prosperity for all. An Africa that all Africans can be happy to
call their home. Together, we can achieve this.
THE END.
Source : adesinaforafdb.com
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