By Nik Ogbulie (Lagos)
The President and Chairman of Board of Directors of African Export-Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK), Professor Benedict Oramah, has re-emphasized the efficacy of trade in directing the flow of sustainable economic development and industrialization in such a way that citizens of various countries will be able to live in such a way that they will remain competitive and determine it economic destiny by itself as against the dictates of globalisation.
Speaking on “The Trade Route to Poverty Reduction in Africa in a De-globalized World”, at the 8th Biennial Goddy Jidenma lecture, in Lagos, Professor Oramah hinted that various other blocs in the world had at one time or the other fashioned out the way forward for their continents to develop, leaving Africa behind.
He instructed that the time has really come for Africans to seriously structure themselves out of the difficulties despite the huge opportunities that abound within their space. He noted that in spite of the much elevated dependence on globalization as earlier propounded by multilateral institutions, Africa has not moved away from where it found itself before the idea of globalization and this calls for a rethink .
He said that Africa has remained at the bottom of global indices of all human activities and a new discovery has become inevitable for the quantum shift that can create a new space for the continent. He noted that nationalism has taken over from globalization in an effort for economies to quickly fashion out better ways that can drive their development demands and industrialization.
This, he muted, marked the near collapse of globalization. He noted that, “in the midst of this near-dashed hopes, Africa responded by bringing to life a Continental Free Trade Agreement that proponents hope would open another pathway for trade-led economic progress and poverty reduction. First muted by African leaders at the first meeting of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963.
It took 55 years for it to be achieved. The Agreement was signed in 2018 and came into force a year after in 2019”. Oramah indicated that the effort can open regional supply chains that would foster economic growth and development even as the World Bank has estimated that, about 30 million African would be lifted out of extreme poverty while boosting the income of about 68 million who currently live on less that $5 .5 per day. He also noted that AfCFTA would also boost the continental income by $450 billion by 2035.
The new economic development approach , according to him, will offer Africa the opportunity to export about $560 billion each year and spur larger wage gains for women by about 10% and 9% for men while the skilled workforce will enjoy outstanding wage boost.
Oramah acknowledged that a lot has been done to get AfCFTA to get going but urged his audience to ensure that trading through it is largely boosted to avoid falling victim of the vices of globalization, provide access to trade and investment information, provide a solution to the 42 fragmented payment systems, fill the intra-African payment gap at over $50 billion annually, close the transit issue in a continent with 16 landlocked countries, improve capacity for standardization of commodities and improving the SMEs for global trade. While encouraging his audience to offer huge support to the AfCFTA, Oramah said that ,”trade remains the most potent force in catalyzing economic transformation while the waves of globalization fostered the transformation of developing economies in Asia and elsewhere as Africa failed to leverage the opportunities.
In an era of globalization, Africa cannot ignore the opportunity to pursue self determination through inward-looking policies and programmes. The AfCFTA is the path to the realization of this urgent continental ambition. Afreximbank through its array of AfCFTA-enabling programmes, presents clear solution to the challenges of implementing the Free Trade Agreement”.
The lecture was a very good opportunity for a good population of the audience to interrogate the novel economic initiative which has become the most current effort by the various African development institutions led by Afreximbank, in taking the economy of the continent out of the difficult challenges of globalization.
