Strengthening institutions and providing enough capacity to professional individuals will be a catalyst to help transform the African economies that have recently been crippled by various factors and now, experts are agitating for drastic change to move the continent forward.
This was highlighted in the ongoing inaugural African Transformation Forum in Kigali, Rwanda where economic experts, policy makers and government officials from all over the continent are gathered to deliberate on the best mechanisms on how Africa can be economically transformed in a way that positively impacts the poor citizens as well as growing the economies.
The two day forum organized by Africa Center for Economic Transformation in partnership with the Rwandan government is being held between 14 and 15 March 2016.
Participants agree that there is a need for the African governments to adjust and embark on providing adequate capacity building as this will drive the economic transformation that is urgently needed to facilitate Africa to compete favorably in global trade and investment.
Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie, Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), who is an economist and development expert, believes that there is need for African higher learning institutions to embark on practical science studies rather than theoretical learning which he said plays a pivotal role in economic development.
“We must look at human capital as a driver to economic change. If you don’t have skills you cannot talk about transformation and this means that we need universities to educate young Africans on how to solve their problems economically and move this continent to another level,” he said.
Prof. Nnadozie who was among the discussants on the topic “Implementing National Transformation Strategies” further observed that political will was another essential factor to accelerate economic transformation on the continent.
“Governments with visionary leaders will always perform better compared to others. That’s why we need a political will to monitor the performance of institutions,” he said.
He commended the Rwandan government that is currently looked at as a model in terms of establishing feasible initiatives that have facilitated the sustainable growth urging that it’s imperative for other countries to come up with developmental initiatives that will help provide employment opportunities to the citizens.
With the support of ACBF and other organizations, Rwanda has managed to maintain the annual growth rate of 7 percent.
Some of the challenges highlighted that continues to hinder the economic development in the continent include poor leadership that harbor corruption, incompetent skilled labor which is considered to be caused by nepotism in governments, inadequate infrastructure like poor roads network as well as political instabilities that leads to destruction of already existing infrastructural facilities and loss of lives.
Experts further noted that, governments spend much time in discussion on how to eliminate some challenges like trade barriers which eventually fail to work due to poor political commitment urging that there is a need to rethink and strategize other moves that can see the purging of all existing trade barriers in place to promote intra-regional trade.
However, despite some challenges, some African countries have really managed to soldier on by initiating new mechanisms to steadily keep their economies growing. Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mauritius are among those that have kept the economic growth candle burning despite the dark historical challenges.
In the case of Rwanda, Claver Gatete the Rwandan Minister of Finance and Economic Planning mentioned that the country initiated a new economic strategy which acts as an economic guiding model for the country. This, according to the minister, has yielded positive results.
“The story however is just beginning; we are taking deliberate steps to push this transformation faster through our Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy. This hinges on increasing trade especially exports, facilitating urbanization, developing a green and climate resilient economy; increasing productivity and youth employment with particular emphasis on off-farm employment, rural development including raised agricultural productivity and accountable governance which provides a platform for citizens to engage and find innovative solutions to development issues,” he said while making a presentation during the Forum.
The Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS) was designed to move the country to middle income class by 2020.
Dr Kingsley Y. Amoako the President of African Center for Economic Transformation noted that for transformation to take place, a public-private partnership and mobilization of both domestic and external resources would be required.
“Transformation cannot take place without committed and ethical leadership. It cannot take place without sustained engagement between the public and private sectors. It cannot take place without improved coordination between key organs of government in strategy formulation and implementation. It cannot take place without the mobilization and judicious allocation of both domestic and external resources,” he noted.
