Local communities are vital in the fight against the pandemic

Ibrahim Mayaki

Local African organizations are making a major contribution to containing the pandemic. Over time, they have demonstrated their social usefulness and their capacity for resilience.

AUDA-NEPAD very early on understood the magnitude of the pandemic and the importance of a coordinated continental response. We have forged partnerships and mobilized resources, setting up a Coronavirus fund that has $20 million in pledges. Our response plan covers strategic areas of public health and broader public policy, and also supports the private sector which is severely impacted by the global recession. Our action plan focuses on the following seven areas: Health service delivery; human resources for health; research, development, innovation and local manufacturing; education and training; skills and employability; food and nutrition security; and finance.

Local development agents, and political, civil society and religious leaders are on the ground, communicating closely with communities on a daily basis, to raise awareness of the fight against the virus. The measures put in place over the last decade to combat the various epidemics, particularly the Ebola virus, have made it possible to ensure that infrastructure, people and resources can be mobilized quickly.

Sierra Leone built community health centres to keep up with its Ebola cases. They were used to quarantine and treat those who could still be infected. A network of caregivers, trained medical auxiliaries to assist them, village community members, and regional officials made it possible to detect, isolate the sick and educate families to prevent the spread of the virus. This system has proved its worth; the last Ebola case in Sierra Leone was treated in early March 2020, a few days before the first case of Covid-19 was declared in the country.

“Across the continent, whenever we have had to make a concerted effort, we have been able to rely on our local networks, committed to community service.”

The lessons learned from this experience enabled the country to anticipate the spread of the next pandemic. A similar network was created in Nigeria to contain polio. Now, this network of more than 7,000 healthworkers across the country has been trained in record time to detect any suspected cases of Covid-19. There are many more examples of local networks in Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, Ethiopia, Rwanda and throughout Africa that have agilely and resiliently taken over from governments to prevent the spread of the virus.

AUDA-NEPAD is aware of the central role of our traditional, religious and local communities in the inclusive development of the continent. Agenda 2063, adopted in 2015, relies on traditional organizations to support our development policies. Across the continent, whenever we have had to make a concerted effort, we have been able to rely on our local networks, committed to community service.

African societies are societies of communities, not individuals, a fabric made resilient by countless interwoven struggles tackled side by side. They structure social ties and support economic development, even more so among young people, women and vulnerable populations. They safeguard our cultures so that they can withstand the passage of time, in the face of the worst disasters, including health disasters. The management of the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in Western countries where there is less culture-based community interaction, reminds us of the solutions we have. And perhaps the rest of the world could learn from it.  

A united Africa against the pandemic

Ibrahim Mayaki

Never before has the African Union borne its name so well.  The pandemic continues its course, with new cases every day and our continent, hitherto spared, is seeing a surge in the number of infected people. It is no longer a question of whether we are ready to fight it, but rather of taking it on together, this virus that knows no borders or ethnicity.

Scientific solidarity
 Shortly after the first case of Covid-19 was reported, the African Union convened a meeting of health ministers on 22 February to develop a continent-wide strategy and set up a working group. Known as the Africa Coronavirus Task Force (AFCOR), it comprises six technical teams working closely with Member States, WHO and Africa CDC (Center for Disease Control). The AU’s technical institution, which was established to support public health initiatives, is on the frontline in this race against time.  In early February, only Senegal and South Africa were capable of screening for the virus. The African CDC assisted the 55 Member States in building capacity at the national level, providing training on key priorities such as point-of-entry disease surveillance, event-based surveillance (ESB) in community health facilities and laboratory diagnostics.

Now, thanks to the partnership between CDC and WHO, 43 countries are able to screen, proof that a coordinated strategy pays off. The Africa CDC has targeted three high-risk countries for the spread of the virus: Nigeria, Cameroon and Kenya. The institution has so far estimated that $850,000 is needed to build Covid-19 response capacity in these countries. Albeit modest, this sum will make it possible to not only train and improve laboratory diagnostic capabilities, but to also support the target countries in acquiring both statistical tools and effective disease surveillance techniques. Although we do not have nearly the resources of developed countries, themselves overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis, our salvation lies in our ability to prevent and isolate outbreaks of contamination. We must therefore work together to find solutions by mobilising our internal resources.

Economic solidarity
 All pan-African financial institutions are being called upon to support this war effort. The West African Development Bank (WADB) has already released 120 billion CFA francs in the form of 15 billion CFA franc loans (€23 billion) to each of its eight member states. The bank has undertaken to freeze part of these countries’ debt, estimated at 76.6 billion CFA francs. The Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) has earmarked $100 million to support sub-Saharan African countries in their efforts to prevent and contain the spread of the pandemic. The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) announced a $3 billion Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility to help central banks in African countries deal with the economic impacts, including trade defaults, of the Covid-19 pandemic. This fund will also serve to support and stabilise the foreign exchange resources of member countries’ central banks, enabling them to back critical imports under emergency conditions.

Military solidarity
 Throughout this health crisis, we continue to bear in mind our Agenda 2063 objective: to silence the guns. And because, sometimes, seeking peace means preparing for war, a joint AU-ECOWAS-G5 Sahel meeting on the deployment of 3,000 African troops in the Sahel was held on 16 March in Niamey, Niger. The AU will deploy an additional 3,000 troops to reinforce G5 Sahel countries’ actions. Once again, the Chadian army was alone in dealing with deadly and nearly simultaneous attacks by Boko Haram against its positions at Boma in Lake Chad and a Nigerian army convoy at Konduga in Borno State.

It is our hope that the urgent appeal to Africa and the international community by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, for operational solidarity in the fight against terrorism will be heard.

This global pandemic must serve to remind us of the very essence of our institutions and AUDA-NEPAD’s raison d’être: the pooling of our strengths to overcome adversity, for our survival. We have a long-established sense of family and community solidarity. By caring for and supporting our parents, our families, our neighbours, our allies, we do as our ancestors did, protect humanity. So in these troubled times, let us set an example and continue to keep this solidarity, our most noble heritage, alive within us.

Creating professional opportunities to silence the guns

Ibrahim Mayaki

In the aftermath of the 33rd African Union Summit on the theme “Silencing the guns”, we reaffirm AUDA-NEPAD’s role in peacekeeping in the name of economic and social development.

When Agenda 2063 was published, we had set a deadline of 2020 for the silence of arms. Once this dramatic observation has been made, we must draw the consequences and take the measure of what we must change or improve in order to guarantee peace and security for all Africans, which is an indispensable prerequisite for the development of our continent.

Our vigilance is unremitting so as not to leave any room for the proliferation of weapons. We must continue to reject violence and conflict. To this end, mechanisms for diplomatic cooperation and conflict resolution must be favoured, in line with the logic of  “African solutions to African problems”.

Fighting the symptoms, certainly, but we also need to treat the root cause of the disease. And to achieve this, we will need to accelerate and amplify Africa’s economic and social development. The reforms undertaken are intended to be replicated and extended across the continent to meet basic human needs, including education, health, sanitation, food security, housing, drinking water and energy. The AU, the RECs and Member States have the primary responsibility for implementing development policies and programmes aimed at integrating the continent and having a positive impact on the livelihoods and well-being of all Africans, especially the youngest.

“We will continue to promote peace through job creation, through initial and vocational training in both urban and rural areas”

Thus, AUDA-NEPAD focuses on vocational training and entrepreneurship for women and youth by supporting the integration and alignment of TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) in the national qualification frameworks of fifteen countries, from South Africa to Tunisia, Benin and Sierra Leone. The Agency is also involved in capacity building in the agricultural sector of twelve CAADP countries TVET. The EFPTA (Technical and Vocational Agricultural Education and Training) programme for women is already fully operational in six countries.

With the Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA) programme in seven countries, we are supporting the empowerment and skills development of young people.  National action plans for rural youth employment and entrepreneurship have been developed and validated in Benin, Cameroon, Malawi and Niger.

The 100,000 SMEs for 1 million jobs programme also aim to create opportunities for 1 million young people by 2021. Recommendations have been made to encourage initiatives to accelerate the reforms needed to improve the business environment and promote youth entrepreneurship.

Clearly, on a continental scale, these programmes are necessary but not sufficient. We will continue to promote peace through job creation, through initial and vocational training in both urban and rural areas, through the development of the health sector, through the protection of nature and the fight against global warming and its consequences in terms of population displacements, through the interconnection of countries and regions to facilitate trade and thus openness to others. We will continue to build and rebuild bridges and roads between peoples, where others are destroying everything in their path. 

My selected books of the year 2019

Ibrahim Mayaki

When the year comes to an end, it is important to remember the highlights of the past twelve months. As a passionate reader, I chose the five books that caught my attention in 2019.

1.  “Does capitalism have a future?”, Immanuel Wallerstein, Randall Collins, Craig Calhoun, Michael Mann, Georgi Derluguian 
In this important collective work, five major intellectuals draw up a panorama of the state of the world and debate their analysis and the answers to be given to think about our time. It is a very relevant analysis of the often-neglected major trends that illustrate the limits of the expansion of the capitalist “world system”. 

2. “Beating the Odds: Jump-Starting Developing Countries”, Celestin Monga and Justin Yifu Lin
 After the failures of the Washington consensus policies, an illustration of how rapid economic growth processes can happen in countries where there is a lack of essential preconditions like good infrastructure and institutions.

3. “The End of power” Moises Naim
How the decay of power is changing the world and bringing « our heightened vulnerability to bad ideas and bad leaders ». In this fascinating book, the author makes the more provocative claim that power is, in fact, declining. He focuses on the flagging ability of large organizations—government ministries, corporations, militaries, churches, educational and philanthropic foundations—to get their way.       

4. « L’homme inutile (du bon usage de l’économie) », Pierre-Noel Giraud 
Or how to make good use of the economy by dismantling the mechanisms of uselessness, which is “the worst form of inequality” because there are more and more unemployed men reduced to uselessness to themselves and to others”. By questioning the economy, globalization and public policies, the professor of economics proposes a reflection on the growing income gap within a country and the solutions to solve the problem of uselessness that excludes the unemployed, the precarious or poorly housed. The author suggests measuring the effectiveness of public policies in the fight against uselessness.

5. Africapolis
 Produced by the OECD Sahel and West Africa Club, Africapolis.org is the only comprehensive and standardised geospatial database on cities and urbanisation dynamics in Africa. It is designed to enable comparative and long-term analyses of urban dynamics – covering 7 500 agglomerations in 50 countries. The Africapolis data are based on an extensive repertoire of housing and population censuses, electoral registers and other official population sources, some of which date back to the early twentieth century. The regularity, level of detail and reliability of these sources vary from country to country and from period to period.

The bottom-up approach of the African private sector makes all the difference

Ibrahim Mayaki

African success stories are multiplying in the private sector, each more inspiring than the next. A striking fact explains some of the dazzling successes whether start-ups, telecommunications companies or banks: a bottom-up approach, which starts from the realities on the ground to design solutions adapted to needs, from the most local to the most global. And not the other way around, which consists of plating imported goods or services without adapting them to demand.

Indeed, an object such as the razor has the same use all over the world. But the way it is sold will change everything in Africa, where you have to consider the pace of transactions and maturities, which are not necessarily monthly as in Europe. The logic is rather that of “daily expenditure”, the famous “DE”* as it is called in Senegal. This DE ensures that purchasing power is adjusted on a day-to-day basis for products sold at retail. That’s why a bag of 10 razors is less likely to be purchased than each piece individually.

In other areas, market adjustment leads to perfectly innovative products on a global scale, as seen with M-Pesa, the e-wallet that has made the Kenyan mobile network operator globally known. In doing so, the solution invented in Kenya has been replicated in much of the continent. It is part of the daily lives of Cameroonians and Malagasy alike, not to mention the African diasporas who send money to their families back home. As indicated in the latest GSM Operators Association (GSMA) report on the digital economy in sub-Saharan Africa, the continent hosts nearly half of the world’s active mobile money accounts.

Microfinance and meso-finance allow telecommunications companies and banks to reinvent themselves, as seen in Senegal and Zimbabwe, with the respective examples of Wari and Econet Wireless. The main lesson of these successes is that the potential of the informal sector should not be underestimated, a word that has a pejorative connotation in itself, while it is synonymous with remarkable dynamism.

“The private sector is currently the main source of employment on the continent”

These initiatives contribute to an ad hoc regional integration, which is carried out on a daily basis in economic terms. An online trading company founded in Nigeria and later expanded to other countries made headlines this year due to its listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Upstream, many other African private groups are advancing telecommunications infrastructure. Tens of thousands of kilometres of fibre-optic cables are being laid across the continent to link countries together, with a vision that does not care about linguistic or cultural borders, but relies on a demand that can only be exponential.

Internet access, which stood at 23% in sub-Saharan Africa in 2017 according to World Bank figures, is expected to jump to 39% by 2025 according to the GSMA report. The expansion of this access not only makes Africa a new frontier for global growth. It is also one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDOs), and nourish high hopes for faster growth through digital technology.

The private sector is currently the main source of employment on the continent. The extent of these successes in this sector must be appreciated by policy-makers and the great lesson to be learned from the African private sector for policy-makers in Africa can be summed up in these few words: starting from the field to identify needs. There is not necessarily a need to call for help, but to consider actions in a sustainable way, with future generations in mind. There is only profit to be made from it, from every point of view.

*DE: daily expenditure

Diaspora remittances are a key source of financing for Africa’s development

Ibrahim Mayaki

Whether formal or informal, remittances from the diaspora have long been undervalued. However, they characterize a large part of Africa’s financial life. These financial flows between individuals contribute significantly to the economic growth of African countries: between 10% and 20% of the GDP of some countries, from Senegal to Lesotho, thanks to remittances that are sent through formal channels. According to the World Bank, money transfers to Sub-Saharan Africa represent $46 billion for the continent as a whole in 2018. These transfers have become more important than official development assistance.

Donors have been slow to realize the importance of remittances. The first report was published only in 2010 by the World Bank and the AfDB. It estimated that some 30 million African nationals from the diaspora, including North Africa, made “formal” transfers through traditional banking networks. 

Another category of less documented flow, that is crucial in daily life, is the funds that flow between African countries, such as Nigerian operators who source agricultural inputs in Côte d’Ivoire, Somali expatriates who support their families from South Africa or Malian manufacturers who source cement in Senegal, for example. These exchanges do not necessarily involve direct transfers. They are based above all on a form of “relational” economy specific to our continent and is based on trust. (see below the main amounts of remittances in Africa).

We can also note that a significant proportion of money transfers are made through informal means. In reality, this money circulates through ingenious channels, aimed at circumventing exchange control regulations or fees charged on international transfers. A simple call between New York and Dakar is all it takes, through banks managed by the “Modou-Modou”, small traders belonging to the Muslim community of the Mourides. These dematerialized money transfers are based on trusted networks and intermediaries charging small commissions: for example, an informal operator in Morocco will take the money of a Senegalese in Morocco who would like to transfer it home, but keep the cash for a different transaction made by another Senegalese customer in Morocco. 

Commissions are half the amount of the 10% or so charged by some remittance companies that are deeply involved in Africa and are located in every cities from which migrants leave, such as Louga in Senegal or Kayes in Mali. The market is huge, since 80% of African migration takes place within the continent, according to the African Union.

These agencies share a rapidly expanding sector, with 61% of the market share of a $4 billion per year market according to the World Bank. This is a trend coveted by banks (32% market share), post offices (5%) and, increasingly, by mobile phone operators. Some operators, particularly in Kenya, have changed the situation, such as the M-Pesa electronic wallet. This approach has been adopted across the continent.

Two countries are leading by example. Ethiopia launched in 2002, a website, the Ethiopian Diaspora Directorate, which identifies investment opportunities in the country for the diaspora members. They are very involved in their home countries, the Ethiopian diaspora the Ethiopian diaspora has invested more than $56 million in the project to build one of Africa’s largest hydroelectric dams, the Great Renaissance. Rwanda launched the Agaciro sovereign solidarity fund in 2012, which has raised €51.5 million in four years.

In fact, African financial success stories are countless. The Dahabshiil remittance network, founded in 1970 in Dubai by Somali businessman Abdirashid Duale, has grown to the size of a multinational… It has more than 2,000 employees in 144 countries. They have the advantage of receiving declared salaries, with pay slips. A good way out of the informal sector, while taking advantage of the huge contribution of migrants, whether on the continent or elsewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source : The Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development, 2019

Statistics, industrialisation and agricultural revolution, three challenges for the continent: my thoughts on Carlos Lopes’ Africa in Transformation

Ibrahim Mayaki

Africa and the statistical challenge
 Africa must invest in the production of better quality data, because the lack of reliable and independent statistical systems can compromise diagnosis and forecasting. Many analyses are distorted by the lack of reliable statistics. Thus, in many countries, the Gross Domestic Product is underestimated, says Carlos Lopes. But if wealth is poorly measured, how can appropriate tax policies be developed? Africa’s ability to pay is undoubtedly diminished. An additional 1% tax effort, which may seem marginal, would nevertheless bring in more than all the public development assistance from industrialized countries! Let’s repeat it because this point is essential: strengthening Africa’s statistical capacity must be a priority, both for individual countries and for the African Union and its related bodies. This was one of the key points of Carlos Lopes’ strategy when he was head of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca).

Africa and the industrialisation challenge
 Carlos Lopes’ book also provides a reflection on the development model that Africa must adopt to create the conditions for a structural transformation of its economy. Indeed, despite remarkable resilience since the 2008 financial crisis, despite some of the highest average growth rates in the world in the past decade, the continent has not succeeded in creating enough jobs or curbing extreme poverty. The dynamism of its domestic markets, the good performance of its exports and the significant increase in investment flows do not compensate for the lack of genuine industrial policies.

The examples of Brazil from the 1950-1980 period, China, which, after its agricultural revolution, became the world’s factory, and, more recently, Malaysia or the United Arab Emirates show that emergence is inseparable from the industrialization process. Carlos Lopes’ observation is worrying: Africa’s share of world industrial production fell by a quarter between 1980 and 2010, from 1.9% to 1.5%. The author calls for smart protectionism, inspired by the policies implemented in emerging countries, and for a proactive approach by public authorities on this subject. The failure of the industrialisation attempts of the 1960s and 1970s should no longer be used as an excuse for inertia, as contexts and objectives have changed radically.

Africa and the agricultural productivity challenge
 It is urgent to change our view of agriculture and recognize that “the farmer is an entrepreneur like any other”, the expression I used in my book Africa’s Critical Choices. It is also the idea forcefully hammered out by Carlos Lopes, which underlines that the challenges of industrialization and the modernization of the agricultural sector are closely linked. While most countries on the continent doubled their average transformation rate after the CAADP was launched in 2003 and agricultural productivity increased by an average of 67%, this rate hides huge disparities. Progress remains insufficient, although Egypt, Ivory Coast, Nigeria or Ghana have performed remarkably well. The average yield of cereal crops in Africa represents only 40% of the average world yield.

Subsistence agriculture on small plots, characterized by very low productivity, remains the dominant mode of production (80%). It does not generate surpluses. Marginalized farmers have limited access to finance and are unable to integrate into the value chain.

However, a paradigm shift is required. African agriculture will have to support the continent’s exponential population growth and rapid urbanization: by 2020, 50% of Africans will live in cities. The agribusiness revolution cannot be postponed any longer and the leaders of this revolution must be those who are today called “smallholder farmers”. 

Press freedom is a cornerstone of our democracies

Ibrahim Mayaki

On the occasion of the 26th World Press Freedom Day, celebrated in Addis Ababa on 2-3 May and jointly organized by the Ethiopian Government, the African Union and UNESCO, it is essential to recall that this day finds its origin on the African continent. It was indeed the Windhoek Declaration of 1991 on the struggle for pluralism and freedom of the media that motivated the United Nations two years later to proclaim May 3 as World Press Freedom Day.

More than ever, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has a particular resonance in Africa: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

African media experienced an unprecedented growth in the 1990s, following the end of the Cold War and democratization. This spectacular progress is explained by the rise of a significant movement that has fundamentally led to major institutional reforms such as the creation of various African regulatory bodies and media observatories. The protest movements and the multi-party system have also led to political, socio-economic and institutional transformations, but above all to the rethinking of the role of the media in the countries’ development processes.

This explosion has also taken on a new dimension with the digital age. Information websites have spread everywhere, from Senegal to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), helping to strengthen the “fourth power”. A decisive counter-power in building public opinion that counts, as can be seen from Algeria to South Africa, where leaders are being held accountable for their actions in their countries.

In addition to the place now given to whistleblowers, who have been in Kenya with the Uhashidi open source software ahead of the rest of the world, it is another narrative about itself that the continent has appropriated. A sign of the times: the same dynamic has gripped the capitals of the western world, where websites and television channels dedicated to Africa have sprung up, with a coverage that is both critical and constructive. 

World Press Freedom Day is being celebrated this year in a capital that has become highly symbolic. Ethiopia made a spectacular leap in 2018 in terms of freedom of expression. The country has moved up 40 places in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index published by the French NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Journalists and bloggers can relay criticisms addressed to the authorities without being disturbed. 

The thousand participants who gathered in Addis Ababa to discuss this year’s theme, “Media for Democracy: Journalists and Elections in Times of Disinformation”, spoke out against the role of social networks and “fake news” in information – a global trend. Reference was made to the persistent obstacles to freedom of information, including the cuts to Internet access in some countries during elections, such as in Benin during the recent parliamentary elections and in the DRC last December.

For this reason, the media environment is still today characterized by many challenges that do not always allow journalists to work in a professional, free and independent way.

A few advice to the Tutu Fellows…

Ibrahim Mayaki

On 29 April, I travelled to Stellenbosch, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa to hold a discussion with the 2019 Desmond Tutu Fellows. My book, Africa’s Critical Choices, triggered an engaging discussion and I exhorted the Tutu Fellows to diligently try and link technical solutions to political ones in whatever they do. I gave some of the following examples to illustrate this point: If Fellows, for instance, are working in agriculture, their objective could be to strengthen a farmers’ association, or if they are working in the health domain then it could be linked to nutrition in a community.

I also urged the Fellows to create networks beyond their current domains, as this will allow them to create synergies and have greater impact in society. I also encouraged the young leaders by stating that the incremental changes being effected in the short and medium term will contribute to the long term objectives, thus instilling transformation.

I concluded by saying that the value of any democracy lies in its inherent values of dignity, freedom, and equality which are essential for a democratic system in order to avoid the development of conflict.

Africa needs to achieve its infrastructure “big push”

Ibrahim Mayaki

In Africa, we often talk about the opportunities offered by “leapfrog”, these technological leaps that will allow the continent to develop more rapidly by learning from the experiences of other countries and by adopting new technologies more quickly. But if there is one step that Africa will not be able to skip, it is infrastructure. Because, despite its openness to the outside world, with a coastline oriented towards the export of raw materials to industrialized countries, the continent remains the most marginal region in world trade… and the least integrated within its own borders, with inter-African trade barely exceeding 13% of sub-Saharan Africa’s total foreign trade.

It is estimated that the “gap” in terms of infrastructure investment in Africa stands between $130 billion and $170 billion per year. Filling it would allow an annual increase of 2.6% in average per capita income, according to the World Bank – a very rapid jump in growth. Access to electricity, that only 43% of households have access to, is at the top of the list, along with access to drinking water and transport infrastructure. Connecting cities and regions by road, rail and air is no longer just a matter of necessity. Amplified by rapid urbanization, these needs also represent enormous opportunities, which contribute to making Africa one of the last frontiers of growth in the world.

A global awareness happened in the 2000s. Responses commensurate with the challenges were sought. The Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility (NEPAD-IPPF) was launched in 2005 to support regional projects. Fueled by several donor countries, this fund has made it possible to complete the financing of 30 projects, totalling $24 billion. Building on this success, Africa decided to go further in 2012 with its Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), launched at the initiative of the African Union Commission (AU), NEPAD, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the regional economic communities. In view of the diversity of national, regional and international initiatives, synergy between the AU Commission and the regional economic communities is central.

Today, through the “5% Agenda”, we want to mobilize a gigantic and almost “natural” source of financing: African pension funds and sovereign wealth funds. We estimate that African institutional investors hold more than $1.1 trillion. For the time being, these funds are invested in ultra-secure assets such as US government bonds or, ironically enough, European roads and airports.

How can we expect foreign investors to come to invest in us if we do not invest ourselves in our future? We suggest that these African pension funds and sovereign wealth funds invest at least 5% of their assets under management to close the infrastructure financing gap in Africa. That would be about $55 billion. Today, with the establishment in the United States of the Development Finance Corporation – whose objective is to de-risk the financing of institutional investors, particularly towards Africa – Africa must seize the opportunity to lead the way. This is why an African Infrastructure Guarantee Facility (AIGM) is being developed with the African Development Bank (AfDB). As far as infrastructure is concerned, we are not advocating for a leapfrog, but for a “big push”!