Key Highlights From The Africa CEO Forum as Leaders, Experts Chart New Paths to African Prosperity
- Presidents, leaders, and economists have given their perspectives on how Africa may reach the elusive prosperity
- The need for a plan to assist offer a clearer role to self-reliance and self-sufficiency within the continent has been identified
- The CEO forum event in Abidjan highlighted the issues confronting the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA)
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For two days, Monday, 13th and Tuesday 14th of June the City of Abidjan, the capital of Cote D’Ivoire welcomed Presidents, Vice Presidents, and private sector leaders for the Africa CEO forum 2022.
The programme with the theme; “Economic sovereignty, green growth and industrial transformation: new paths to African prosperity” as its searchlight on continental trade.
Africa's top players notably Nigeria in attendance are Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Abdul Samad Rabiu Chairman and CEO of BUA Group.
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Other leaders who graced the summit is the President Alassane Ouattara, President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire; Nana Akufo-Addo, President, the Republic of Ghana, S.E. Patrick Achi, Prime Minister, République de Côte d'Ivoire.\\, Mr Amir Ben Yahme called for Africa to develop strategic autonomy, by promoting local industrialisation.
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He noted that Economic sovereignty has particularly caught on in Africa as the continent relies more heavily on the rest of the world than other regions with 84% of its trade coming outside its borders.
He also went further to opine that while some countries have managed to reduce external reliance, such as Nigeria in the cement industry and South Africa in pharmaceuticals more still needs to be done.
He added,
"This is a clarion call for all players and stakeholders to strengthen collaboration and cooperation with the rest of the world in order to achieve b sovereignty in all ramifications for the African Continent."
Key speakers highlights
According to the Guardian, Vice President Osinbajo of Nigeria in his speech reiterated the need for self-sufficiency in food development and energy sufficiency
He noted:
"We need to be self-sufficient in food development and energy sufficiency. But we must also be a bit careful with the concept of sufficiency sovereignty.
We have got to look into other areas like tech and at the same time, we have to look into taxes. But we don’t have the capacity to tax such new players in the tech space because their terrain is different."
During one of the sessions, Billionaire Mr Abdul Samad Rabiu blames Africa's unpreparedness for the suffering from the Russia-Ukraine war.
He said:
"Africa needs to produce; the Russian war in Ukraine has exposed Africa. We need to produce in Africa and we need to invest in infrastructure.“
Rabiu further hammered home on some statistics;
“Africa sits on 60 percent of the world’s arable land. We have 30 percent of the world’s mineral resources, that is most of the mineral resources of the world’s natural resources are on the African Continent.”
For Ghana’s President Addo he stated:
“What needs to be done on the Continent? A policy framework needs to be put in place. Fundamentals that need to be done? Basically, do it yourself, build capacity for yourself as an African country.”
Breakdown of attendance
According to the organisers, there were in attendance six Heads of State, over 1800 attendees and 60 impactful sessions.
Nigeria accidentally discover oil in the Northeast region
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that minister of state petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, said the country accidentally discovered 1 billion barrels of crude oil in the Northeast.
According to him, a lot of oil is yet to be found in Nigeria and there was a need for more exploration in the country as more oil would be discovered.
He also noted that when the Port Harcourt refinery is completed, President Muhammadu Buhari's government would have achieved a lot.
Source: Legit.ng
