The African Economic Platform will bring African leaders from public, private, philanthropic and academic sectors to engage on four (4) critical matters leading to implementable initiatives. As agreed, to ensure that the basic human rights of our peoples are at the centre of Agenda 2063, we have to ensure that rights to education, to food and nutrition, to health care, to safe water, sanitation and energy are enshrined in our respective endeavours to implement Agenda 2063.

The Continent is at a fork in the road. Notwithstanding the current challenges faced by the continent, sustained growth remains the key ingredient to unleash the potential of the continent when adequate skills are continuously harnessed and free movement of the African people becomes a real facility accessible to all. We know that development aid has helped, but will not deliver sustainable growth and transformation in Africa. The continent must continue to explore and tap into innovative and domestic finance for the effective implementation its transformation through trade and industrialisation.

A study by NEPAD and ECA (2014) shows that Africa is responsible for a significant proportion of its development finance as more than $527.3 billion comes from domestic taxes compared to $73.7 billion received in private flows and 51.4 billion in official development assistance. Supplemental revenues come from pension funds, diaspora remittances, earnings from minerals and fuels, international reserves held by reserve and central banks, liquidity in the banking sector, the growing marketplace for private equity funds and potential resource flows from securitisation of remittances.

Following the January 2016 African Union Summit, we find it appropriate to take the decisions and conversations forward in order to ensure that business and political leaders, find realistic and achievable common ground to ensure that terrorism in Africa will not find fertile ground in poverty. It is our belief that Africa has the required internal resources to finance the transformation of its people and the continent. Furthermore, that shared prosperity and well-being are achievable for ordinary Africans across the continent.

While African countries taken separately may have diverging issues, the African Economic Platform will allow for four (4) interconnected issues to anchor the programme. As a result, the time invested will result in greater collaboration on matters of common interest for effective African integration leveraging on two (2) billion Africans.

Critical issues

Four critical areas that have the potential when realised in their right mix, in each country and region, to elevate the socio-economic conditions of Africans, have been identified. We ought to leave Mauritius with the assurance that Africans will be equipped with adequate skills on the largest visa-free continent, in order to use their skills through the value chain of our natural resources making African industrialisation, the premise of greater intra-African trade. For this purpose, we agree to focus our discussions on (1) skills, (2) trade, (3) industrialisation and (4) free movement.

More specifically, the African Economic Platform aims at securing:

1. Commitment from all parties to remove policy obstacle for doing business in Africa;

2. Implementation of policies for sustained and inclusive growth;

3. Increase African awareness of continental issues in a global context; and

4. Integrate youth perspective and commitment into the #AfricaWeWant

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Trade

What would it take for African countries to stop exporting the bulk of their oil, diamonds and maize to foreign countries rather than to other African countries?

Trade creates linkages that are essential to the integration agenda. Although intra-African trade is not a panacea for development, it is quite important. Small Medium Enterprises could become more competitive by creating economies of scale across their respective regions. As they grow, SMEs can strengthen product value chains and facilitate the development of technology and knowledge.

Trade incentivises and spurs infrastructure development and attracts foreign direct investment expanding intra-African trade. This is key to accelerating economic growth on the continent. Especially important for the continent’s many small, non-coastal countries that face tremendous challenges trading internationally.

Unfortunately, Africa’s current internal trade is challenged by the fact that most of its exports go to the world’s advanced economies like the US,UK and China, and most of its imports come from those same advanced economies. In this respect, the African Economic Platform ought to reflect on:

Economic diversification in order to encourage many African countries to specialise in complementary goods to exchange with each other;

Conflict as it diminishes the capacity for African states to engage in intracontinental trade. These factors lead to low levels of economic growth, destroy needed export infrastructure, and slow and reverse regional integration;

Infrastructure is and has always been a major issue for Africa. Like conflict, infrastructural deficiencies reduce economic growth and productivity, and raise transportation costs.

The unnecessary delays, harassments and massive graft associated with corruption among those engaged in intraregional trade in Africa needs to be addressed in order to increase trade. This will require a coordinated and harmonised implementation of stringent protocols on the free movement of goods and people across the region by, in particular, dismantling the numerous security outposts and checkpoints along the borders. This process will facilitate trade, reduce smuggling activities and promote regional investments in trade.

To reduce trade diversion, a supranational body or the region’s more prosperous countries should fill any vacuum created by the stepping back of non-African trading partners. Regional innovation and technology policies should be crafted to ensure the diffusion of technology, and a comprehensive competition policy outlining the rules of the game in the form of rewards and sanctions for the conduct of national economies in intraregional trade could also be designed. There is a need for greater efficiency in the delivery of trade-related services by banks and other financial institutions in the region. Adequately capitalized export-import banks should be encouraged to support trade within African countries by facilitating the painless and swift transfer of export receipts and import payments.

To effectively stimulate growth across sectors and among nations in the region, significant efforts must be undertaken to address these challenges if the benefits of intra-Africa trade are to be truly realised.

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Conclusion

The resolution of the issues identified through dialogue and effective determination are central to the implementation of the programs that support the Agenda 2063. We, Africans, affirmed our determination to build an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven and managed by its own citizens, representing a dynamic force in the international arena.

The African Economic Platform thus offers a high-level forum for public-private sector consultations. While we recognise that efforts on the part of governments are required to enhance political stability, promote peace and security, strengthen public administration, raise confidence in the legal and regulatory frameworks, gain more ground in the war against corruption and invest more in capacity development, the African private sector should seize the opportunities to accompany ongoing reforms aimed at expanding the fiscal space to support implementation.