African governments have been advised to develop home-grown solutions, invest in human capacity building and agriculture in order to rebuild Africa and put her on a stronger footing post-Covid-19.
African thought leaders spoke out during the pane session of the 2020 edition of United Bank for Africa (UBA) African Day Conversations, with the theme ‘Domestic Policies, Regional Development and a Global Agenda: SDGs and African Development at Crossroads’.
The virtual session, which was moderated by veteran journalist and media consultant, Eugenia Abu, was made up of thought leaders from across Africa, including the Regional CEO, UBA West Africa, Abiola Bawuah (Ghana); Senior Program Coordinator, Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes, Dr Nalishebo Meebelo (Zambia); Leadership Coach and Chairman, Go Ahead Africa Ltd, Roland Kwemain (Cameroon); Founder and Executive Director, Social Change Factory, Sobel Aziz Ngom (Senegal); Special Assistant to the President Muhammadu Buhari on Digital and New Media, Tolu Ogunlesi (Nigeria) and Social Entrepreneur and Founder, LEAP Africa, Ndidi Nwuneli (Nigeria).
Abiola Bauwah who emphasised how Africa should rely less on foreign donors, said: “There are five areas we should work on more for us to reach the SDG goals; the private sector; rapid industrialization; institutions and the rule of law; develop our human capital; remove the barriers across Africa. We should institute Afri-capitalism, which is an economic philosophy that says that the human and capital resources of Africa are the only ways in which we can develop Africa.”
Nalishebo Meebelo noted that there’s a lot that young people can do along the value chain of manufacturing, transporting, technology and marketing.
“Government cannot do it alone, they need to work with other stakeholders. Cut and paste solutions do not work for us here in Africa. We need to have our own home-grown solutions to fight this pandemic.”
Ndidi Nwuneli was saddened that the agricultural sector remained hugely untapped, emphasised the need for a change of mindset where people usually equated agriculture to poverty.
“This is a $1 trillion industry and we are neglecting it; therefore my charge to you is that we invest in the agricultural sector, prioritize it, leverage it, transform our educational system to prepare our young people for this sector, change the mind-set and trade with each other,” she explained.
The United Bank for Africa is a leading pan-African financial institution offering banking services to more than 20,000,000 customers globally. With footprint in 20 African countries and presence globally in the United Kingdom, the USA and France, UBA is connecting people and businesses across Africa through retail, commercial and corporate banking, innovative cross border payments and remittances, trade finance and ancillary banking services.
