The President of African Export-Import Bank
(Afreximbank), Prof. Benedict Okey Oramah, has declared that the implementation
of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) would transform Africa to the
world next economic height.
Oramah noted that Africa should use the AfCFTA,
which was conceived to break colonial trade barriers and promote intra African
trade, to change its story as a continent that wallows in poverty in spite of
being blessed with rich resources.
He made this declaration on Thursday while delivering
the 17th CVL annual lecture and International Leadership Symposium with the
theme: ‘Intra African Trade: Growth and Economic Development’.
According to him, Africa was able to produce great
and wealthy empires like Mali, Ghana and Bini before the dawn of colonialism
because of strong intra African trade that existed then.
He said the AfCFTA is an opportunity to reverse the
colonial trend that erected borders that hindered Africans from trading among
themselves, adding that colonialism has ended many decades ago and Africa would
not continue to blame it for its failures.
Oramah also stated that AfCFTA would enable Africa to
industrialise and improve its share of global manufacturing output, adding: “It
will increase African trade by $35 billion.”
The Afreximbank President stated further that Africa
has all the ingredients it needs to launch itself to prosperity.
“All the ingredients are there for Africa to bolt
away from decades of poverty and become a developed economy. Demographics and
natural resources are two ingredients to transform the economies of Africa. We
only need to unlock these potential,” he said.
Oramah asserted that Africa’s greatest potential
for greatness is its population demographic in spite of the conventional view
that the continent abundant natural resources are its greatest assets to
greatness.
“It is the quality of a population that matters and
not really the number of the people. The important thing is that you must have
quality people.
“The unique feature of Africa’s demographic is that
it is a young population. Africa’s youthful population can be an asset. The
conventional wisdom is that the greatest assets we have are our natural
resources. I don’t think so. Our greatest asset is our people. All that is
needed is the education that can convert our youths into men and women of
actions,” Oramah said.
Speaking during the lecture, the former Governor of
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Joseph Sanusi, said as the continent approaches
the commencement of AfCFTA, there is need for governments in West Africa to
pause and review how far it has implemented the Economic Community of West
African State (ECOWAS) free trade agreement.
Sanusi warned the Nigerian private sector to get
prepared because the keyword in the emerging AfCFTA would be competitiveness.
According to the Chairperson of CVL, Prof. Ifeoma
Linda Utomi, in her welcome address during the lecture, the vision of CVL is to
groom leaders with the right values.
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