Let's Build a Prosperous Africa - President Tells OECD

By Rex Mainoo Yeboah

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to partner with Africa to build a prosperous continent with equal opportunities for all.

Africa is rich in many natural resources that could form the base for processing industries and allied downstream manufacturing industries, the President said in his address at the 18th OECD International Forum on Africa in Paris on Wednesday.

President Akufo-Addo noted that the time has come for the Organisation and Africa to establish a relationship based on trade and investment co-operation, pointing out that Africa also possesses half of the world's uncultivated arable land which could yield enormous benefits in the provision of food stuffs, and diversified, agro-based economic activities.

He mentioned Africa's youthful and growing labour force, which, when empowered, with access to education and skills training will constitute a very powerful tool for economic development in Africa and the world.

With Africa's population of some 1.2 billion, expected to increase to two billion in 20 years, the President said that this represents a huge market that exporters in OECD countries could compete for, with significant potential employment and income impacts in those countries.

In his view with the current industrialization and the structural transformation of African economies, "there are tremendous opportunities for shared prosperity for OECD and African countries in Africa's rapid economic growth and transformation".

To this end, President Akufo-Addo urged OECD countries to focus their support on growth-enhancing interventions, particularly infrastructure, and skills development.

With Africa's infrastructure needs estimated at $170 billion a year, with a financing gap of about $108 billion, the President explained that investments in areas of infrastructural development and skills training for Africa's youth will help the continent leverage its natural and human resources for rapid inclusive growth and economic transformation.

Furthermore, he asked the OECD to simplify its processes, particularly for infrastructure projects, stating that processes for accessing funds, within member countries of the OECD, have become very cumbersome.

In the light of Africa's desire for rapid progress, the President said that African countries are beginning to turn to other sources that are very attractive against the slow and cumbersome OECD processes.

"A clear solution is to simplify and expedite the OECD processes, while maintaining transparency. Currently, the processes for developing and financing infrastructural projects are developed by OECD institutions to reflect your concerns, with little inputs from African countries to reflect our concerns and aspirations," he added.

President Akufo-Addo advocated for the establishment of a joint Africa-OECD Technical Committee to design procedures for processing infrastructural projects in Africa, including for public-private projects (PPPs); procedures that take into consideration the concerns of both parties.

"My Government will like to initiate the discussion on constituting the joint Technical Committee in consultation with others, such as the African Union Commission, the OECD Development Centre, the ADB, the World Bank, the Compact with Africa (CWA), and the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) in Accra, which has been helping to coordinate peer-learning among the CWA countries.

"I am very encouraged by Germany's CWA initiative, which should be strongly supported and emulated by all OECD countries. I am also equally encouraged by the recent enactment by the U.S. Congress of the "Better Utilization of Investment Leading to Development Act (the 'BUILD Act')," the President said.

The Act, the President said, is expected to create a strong and well-capitalized (US$60 billion) Development Finance Institution-- the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (USIDFC)--to help finance, and also crowd in private finance to help build prosperity in low- and middle-income countries," he said.

President Akufo-Addo said Africa welcomes and commends this new boldness and renewed ambition of the United States to support prosperity outside her shores, and, as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) puts it, "to build a self-reliant Africa".

"We look forward to working closely with them. We urge other OECD countries to follow suit, and strengthen their existing efforts in this regard," he added.

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