Integration key to Africa’s success, says Uhuru

By PPS

CAPE TOWN; SOUTH AFRICA: President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday said the prosperity of Africa lies in the economic integration of the continent and increased investments in women and the youth.

Underlining the need to quicken the pace of integration, President Uhuru said the economic fragility of the African continent over the past 50 years has arisen partly due to Africa's fragmented markets, which has placed economies in competition with each other rendering them too small to compete globally.

Speaking on Friday in Cape Town where he is attending the World Economic Forum on Africa, President Uhuru Kenyatta said that deeper integration will widen the market for goods and services.

“This will enhance intra Africa trade and investment which will facilitate the growth of African economies and uplift the living standards of the people.”

The Head of State, who was speaking during a session of the World Economic Forum deliberating on the theme of ‘Africa, in 2063,’ outlined his vision and perspective of Africa in the next 50 years.

Africa’s future

In addition to integration, President Uhuru emphasised that the future of Africa was embodied in the youth and women, adding that Africa not only has the youngest population in the world but also that the majority of the population are young people.

“For Africa to achieve sustainable development and prosperity, we need to invest more on the youth especially in education.  We must also empower women who constitute half of our population.”

In this regard, the President said his Government will invest in the youth as a priority especially in providing education and equipping them with entrepreneurial skills.

“We are also mainstreaming ICT in the education system to ensure our youth have solid grounding in modern information and communication technologies and in order to nurture the culture of innovation that has increasingly taken root in our country.”

Uhuru cited M-pesa as an example of what technology can do saying the Kenyan innovation which has speeded financial transactions, deepened financial inclusion and generated employment is now in use even in developed countries.

Women and youth

The President said that his Government will continue to pursue policies that will enable the youth and women access affordable credit for investments.

This, he said, will further promote the SMEs sector which employs the largest number of people in the country and continent.

On women, the President noted that Kenya has adopted a progressive Constitution that has mainstreamed the empowerment of women and which now enables them to access leadership positions and to inherit and own land.

Emphasising the need for integration, President Kenyatta noted that the people of the East African region and indeed in the continent were already engaging in cross border trade saying the challenge is now on the political leadership to formalise integration.

“What is now needed is the strong political will to support full implementation of all necessary protocols that will lead to full integration of the EAC as well as other regional blocs in the continent.”

The President regretted that trade among African countries accounts for only 10 per cent of the continent’s total trade and is the least compared to trade between the continent and markets like Europe, America and Asia.

The President noted that 60% of Europe’s trade is with its own continent while almost 50% of all trade in Asia is conducted with regional peers.

Towards expediting the process of integration, the President called for the consolidation of trading blocs saying that Africa has 14 different trading blocs with overlapping memberships.

EAC integration

With respect to the East African Community, the President said his Government is committed to deepening the integration of the East African region through the further elimination of trade barriers.

The President further said peace and stability are necessary for the success of the integration agenda and reiterated the commitment of his Government to supporting peace initiatives in the region especially in Somalia.

The President said better connectivity between countries of the East African region would enhance mobility of citizens citing the Lamu Port South Sudan and Ethiopia Transport corridor (LAPSSET) as an example of the infrastructure projects that will improve links between countries in the region.

The President said the completion of the LAPSSET project will link Kenya and Ethiopia, open a wide range of new opportunities and enable millions of people to interact and generate wealth.

To facilitate integration, the President, therefore, underlined the need to prioritise strategic infrastructural development in order to facilitate the movement of goods and persons as well as create incentives for regional diversification and value addition.