Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia yesterday promoted investments in Africa when he addressed the ongoing 14thConfederation of Indian Industry (CII) Exim Bank Conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership in New Delhi, India.
Speaking as the guest speaker at the high-notch meeting of leaders of Indian businesses and many others from the rest of Africa, he said Africa has a lot to offer to the world.
He charged investors to engage their African counterparts as the people of the continent and their governments prepare to take their destinies into their own hands so that they can take their rightful places in the world.
He said Africa is on the move and eager to shake off past failures and other encumbrances due to “blind colonial and cold-war alignments and sheer bad governance.”
According to him, “the new Africa being envisioned is one built through partnership between investors and others who believe in this pattern”.
The three-day engagement is themed: “Partners in Development, Building New Synergies”. The engagement has assembled some 500 delegates alongside ministers and heads of governments from over 40 countries in Africa.
Thirteen chapters of such conclaves have been held making it an outstanding conference of Indian and African governments and industry, during which they chart new courses towards the improvement of the business environments in their countries.
The Vice President had his audience clapping when he introduced them to innovations by President Akufo-Addo, some of which are novelties on the continent.
The free SHS and the mobile money interoperability were some of his disclosures which had his listeners clapping loudly.
With over 1.2 billion population and a combined GDP of US$2.24trillion, Africa’s emerging markets offer great chances for economic growth, Dr. Bawumia indicated.
He announced that the leaders of Africa had already started moves intended to make trading on the continent less cumbersome as contained in the Africa Union’s Agenda 2063, which is the body’s long-term objective for a prosperous continent.
Recalling the AU’s vision for remarkable freedom of air transport, he said the Single African Air Transport Market (SAAT) was launched as a project and it is a flagship of the continental body.
“Enhanced air connectivity, improved intra-African trade, expanded markets through continental economic integration and free movement of people provide greater business opportunities,” he stressed.
Dr. Bawumia issued a rallying cry for constructive dialogue and charged his audience not to depart from the conclave without concrete engagements in business partnerships in key strategic areas.
Some of the Indian businesses represented during the engagements have presence in Ghana. One of them is engaged in the construction of the Accra to Akosombo railway project, having constructed the Jubilee House project at the behest of then Defence Minister, Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor.
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