President Uhuru urges African countries to eliminate needless trade barriers

President Uhuru Kenyatta (right) shares a light moment with some of the delegates during the World Economic Forum in Kigali Rwanda, yesterday. [PHOTO: PIUS CHERUIYOT/STANDARD]

President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for the elimination of cross-border trade barriers in Africa.

Unnecessary hurdles imposed by various states are hampering movement of goods and people, and in effect standing in the way to collective development.

Mr Kenyatta said this in an interactive session at the ongoing World Economic Forum for Africa in Kigali where he was a panellist. “We need to be focused on crushing the barriers that are stopping trade and intra-Africa connectivity,” said the President Kenyatta who was on the panel with Nigerian billionaire philanthropist Tony Elumelu.

Under the theme, ‘Connecting Africa’s Resources Through Digital Transformation’, the business and government leaders attending the forum hope to create stronger trade ties between the various countries, as a means to achieve growth.

Kenyatta said a proper road linking Kenya and Ethiopia would be complete by end of the year, as an example of the cross border connectivity that his government is pushing for in the region. Kenya expects to tap into the 100 million-plus population that is the Ethiopian market.

Population explosion

Slowing growth in the developed economies has depressed demand and prices for African produce, mainly agricultural and minerals, translating to poorer households in the continent. It is the reason that African countries needed to find new markets for their produce closer home, unlike in the present case where there exists a glut in one country and a biting shortage of the same commodity in the other.

“Given the current economic environment, we must break down trade barriers within Africa,” he said in a rallying call to his peers. The African population, currently estimated at 1.2 billion people is a ‘huge dividend’ which the continent must ride on to create wealth. “Our youth are not a challenge; they are an opportunity – all we need to ask ourselves is what kind of education are we providing them,” said the President in responding to a question about the population explosion and high birth rate experienced across the continent.

In Kenya, he said, major changes in the basic education and vocational training would be introduced to tackle the problem of skills gap. Mr Elumelu told the participants that most of the existing road and rail infrastructure was built by the respective colonialists, but only to help the exploitation of minerals and taking it away to the ports.

“It was all built to take away goods from the African countries to the ports, and not for interconnecting us,” said Elumelu, who is also the owner of United Bank of Africa. Just about 10 per cent of all trade by the 55 African countries is between themselves, he added.

Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of Oxfam International – a UK based civil society, blamed tax evasion by wealthy individuals and businesses for the poverty in Africa. She said governments had preferred to give tax and trade incentives to businesses while it is the women – who are involved in farming and other small businesses, who needed the breaks the most.

“It is the woman who needs incentives,” Mr Byanyima said adding, “Africa must take a firm stand on tax incentives.” Earlier Mr Kenyatta was emphatic about the prospects of the continent saying Africa, unlike major economies in the rest of the World, was rising.