PUBLIC LETTER TO AFRICAN LEADERS: LET'S FOCUS ON WHAT UNITES AFRICA. NOT WHAT DIVIDES & WEAKENS OUR UNITY!

Photo: African leaders at the AU headquarters in Ethiopia yesterday. Zoom meetings have lost market these days.

As African leaders meet at the AU summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, my humble advice to them us to put aside until further notice all the toxic issues that divide us, and focus instead  on building what unites us. And what else can currently unite us more than the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement, African leaders need to radically abandon the colloquial belief that the continents development happens through foreign direct investment, foreign aid, and the counter-productive economic policies directed to us from overseas in exchange for World bank loans.

It is quite astonishing that we have been taken back to colonial economics, and we are now even inviting economic colonialism back to the continent ourselves and in broad daylight.

All this is due to not analysing extensively what Foreign Direct Investment really means to the economy of a country, especialĺy if that country has stopped trying to develop sustainably by acquiring the means of production for itself, and is instead hoping that a profit-driven foreign investor will develop us.

How?

This confusion is making us forget that solid sustainable economic growth only exists in any country when local entrepreneurship thrives, be it public or private, or joint venture projects. We are making a huge mistake in placing all our hopes on Foreign investment.

First of all, it is abundantly clear today that in the face of 21st century global competitiveness, the continent has both human and material resources that urgently need to be leveraged better in the international markets, resources that can enable African nations to fuel their own sustainable development themselves. The African diaspora should also be able to play a more pro-active role, even if it is just bringing home what they have seen and/or learned abroad. Ever since the era of great explorers, most developed countries have done exactly that to reach where they are today.

The banking sector has a huge role to play in this regard, and with the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA), the role of African commercial banks is going to be more critical for the continents development. Promoting the implementation of ACFTA to our respective peoples across the continent must be a top priority, and the country that will make the best and quickest effort in this regard will lead economically and surely benefit the most from intra-African trade.

Raising awareness about the opportunities that ones citizens can take advantage of elsewhere on the continent is the kind of information that kick-starts trends, and this leads to exporting products, services and industries from Africa to untapped markets elsewhere across Africa.

We surely cannot expect African entrepreneurs and the African business community at large to embrace the AFCTA agreement simply based on political speeches. Entrepreneurs want to see where are the probable profits. What is our comparative advantage by nation? They need to hear simple and clear answers that will help them understand the real commercial benefits they can achieve from ACFTA. They need to see what resources, products, services and markets are in place in each country on the continent, and what is lacking that they can supply to markets. That is the kind of critical business information that sets entrepreneurship on the march. And just like how the EU and the US embassies around the world support their entrepreneurs abroad with such data as part of consular services, African nations need to do the same under the framework of ACFTA.

Africa's foreign partners should also help build impactful commercial partnerships with African entrepreneurs, African governments, and/or African financial institutions, ventures that will be mutually beneficial. Unless they are partnerships, we do not fully benefit from foreign investment. In the contrary such investments are seen as outright plunder.

We agree that there is a problem where some African individuals, including corrupt leaders and corrupt public officials do not necessarily act in accordance with African policies, our laws, or in the continents best interests. But that is a reality that genuine partnerships contain. That reality also puts bare what African economies fail to gain sustainably, and the profits that foreign investors transfer from Africa to tax havens abroad.

In terms of building unity, it would be great to see African embassies in Europe for example, getting together under ACFTA and organizing diplomatic visits to the international corporations that source raw materials from Africa. This so as to better monitor and discuss ways to improve business relations between such companies and their African suppliers as part of better leveraging the continents resources for local producers in the different economic sectors that export overseas. Why aren't we doing that already yet we are an African Union, an internationally recognized framework that has been united for over six decades?

We need to start putting key common actions to the word unity, while putting aside any toxic political issues that divide us. Especially those issues from outside the continent that do not benefit our peoples.

We should also remind ourselves for example that there is an entire EU economic policy framework that supports and encourages that EU entrepreneurs get the most in their own market from all their imports, while the poor African or Asian farmer, including child labour and uneducated rural women who literally did all the work, barely get enough to feed their families and educate their children despite the immense wealth that their sweat generates overseas.

While we in Africa should never be that selfish, greedy and draconian against anyone, Africa must protect it's farmers and protect it's agricultural sector from commercial cruelty disguised as economic cooperation. We should even go as far as requesting observer status at the EU parliament and/or the EU Council so as to improve economic cooperation and curb exploitation.

In any case we have to be more pro-active in our quest for market share and better remuneration for our exports. Nobody out there should be more determined than us to develop ourselves. They aren't!

In reality we have the skills, the resources, and now the financial markets and related infrastructure in place for our entrepreneurs to try and achieve success .

All we need is to make more efforts to unite at the governmental level under ACFTA, commit, network, keep ourselves informed, organize ourselves better, and start physically implementing what we have launched to help Africa develop itself, and that is the Africa Continental Free Trade Area agreement.

We need African entrepreneurs discussing directly amongst themselves and with African policy makers, and less with international scholars who actually have no business experience whatsoever, but are possibly only attending Africa economic forums simply to add the prestige of international economic events to their CV, and taking advantage of the fact that many African policy makers are not keen on researching, analyzing and knowing for themselves exactly what needs to be done in Africa's best interest. Our leaders are most times finding themselves just repeating what they hear being said by international geopolitics which in reality is skillfully aligning Africa to serve their own interests.

Before colonial days, we used to produce everything we needed ourselves for our own survival at a time when we never expected any assistance from overseas. African governments need to bring that ancient mentality of self-reliance amongst ourselves back into their 21st century African nations economic policies.

We need for example to start seeing African summits happening not in Europe or America, but between African countries, and in African countries.

Today our leaders are bending over backwards to please foreign investors, telling them to come and make money in Africa and offering them privileges to come and exploit our resources. Why aren’t we exploiting those resources ourselves or offering those privileges to African entrepreneurs when African governments are able to obtain financial facilities for any developmental activities?

Basically why are our governments bringing economic colonialism back to Africa in broad daylight rather than developing and empowering our own indigenous business community like is being done overseas?

If it is mineral resources that we have, is it complicated to purchase mining equipment ourselves, recruit the experts and start exploiting the minerals and selling the product to the international market and keeping all the profits in our own economies rather than inviting foreign companies to come and plunder our resources and ship all the profits to tax havens abroad?

Clearly something isn’t right, and that is why I believe many of our leaders are listening to pseudo advice from pseudo economic experts from elsewhere rather than thinking for themselves, and then genuinely acting in the best interest of their countries, for their economies, and for their people.

Signed: Lumumba Amin Dada.

Kampala, Uganda.