The second edition of United Bank for Africa (UBA) African Day Conversations held on Monday presented the opportunity for global leaders to emphasise the need for meaningful collaborations between governments and the private sector as a panacea for the quick recovery of the economy of Africa post COVID-19.
The leaders which included the President of Liberia, George Weah; United States’ Senator Chris Coons; President and Chairman of Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK), Prof. Benedict Oramah; President, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer.
Other leading voices who made up the panel were the Founder, Africa CEO Forum, Amir Ben Yahmed; Secretary-General of the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), George Chikoti; Administrator, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Achim Steiner and Donald Kaberuka.
While moderating at the virtual leadership panel, Chairman, UBA Plc, Tony Elumelu, who is also the Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, spoke on the need to mobilise everyone and explained the necessity to discover a more fundamental solution to Africa’s challenges through collaborative efforts.
“This is the time for us to deal with the situation we have and also forge a better situation for everyone, acting again collectively,” he said.
“This is not the time for finger pointing but for collaborative effort by governments and organizations to fight the pandemic globally.”
Continuing, Mr Elumelu pointed out that all hands must be on deck if the African continent is to have a quick recovery from the pandemic, adding, “There is need to flatten the curve, we need global co-operation to stem global depression. Africa requires a large stimulus package, and we need long-term solutions to prevent a cycle of debt.”
Mr Weah established how collaborations worked in his government in an attempt to stem the sufferings brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
“In Liberia we have taken measures to ease the financial burden on vulnerable business in the informal sector by providing small loan assistance to SMEs and traders. In addition, we are working with commercial banks to manage the repayment of loans as well as to create stimulus packages for citizens,” he said.
Senator Coons said: “It is important to take a moment to look at how African leaders have reacted to the pandemic. In order for us to recover from this pandemic, we must develop a vaccine that is free and affordable and freely distributed so that full economic activities can return. There are ways we can invest in debt relief, invest in infrastructure and human development. This is no time to be looking backwards. We recognise the power of collective collaboration on the continent.”
Prof. Oramah called for the swift implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, saying, “The priority of government should be to make sure that the AfCFTA gets implemented without delay. If there was any doubt about the importance of that agreement, this pandemic has told us that this is the way to go.”
While disclosing that Afrexim has made available $200 million to supply fertilisers and grains among others across Africa, the Afrexim boss added: “If Africa allows hunger take over the people, it will see an increase in insecurity, which will take a long time to overcome.”
Mr Chikoti said the huge task of economic recovery on the continent rests on both the government and the private sector.
“We have been able to release $25 million to all member states. One of the major challenges is to make sure that in all countries, we have agricultural activity and high productivity. What we should learn from the impact of this pandemic is that the international community can look at how well they can fund all these initiatives that come from our countries,” he added.
Mr Steiner noted that digital connectivity is very essential as it is a crucial opportunity to connect all schools across the continent, adding that emphasis on healthcare is also very important.
Mr Maurer said there is the need to look at the pandemic as part of a broader health system which needs stabilization.
“We must do more than life-saving. This pandemic has illustrated the weakness of health, water, sanitation and social systems, and we have to heavily invest into the stabilisation of these systems,” he said.
Mr Yahmed said the crisis is going to be a super accelerator of already existing trends.
“We have to get away from the commodity driven model which has failed in creating prosperity. Secondly, self-reliance should be one of the major objectives. The pandemic is wake up call for Africa – Creating new streams of revenue and self-reliance by the African continent,” he said.
Mr Kaberuka, on his part, said that what Africa needs at the moment is “radical action” not “business as usual”.
