With a population of 1.2 billion people, the African continent should prioritize intra-trade and investments amongst its people and countries, Speaker of the House of Representatives, J. Fonati Koffa, has urged African leaders and other stakeholders on the continent.
He emphasized the importance of prioritizing intra-trade and investments within Africa to boost economic growth. He advocated for open borders, a single currency, and the leveraging of technology as key factors in promoting trade over aid on the continent.
"As I am given this platform or any other, I will continue to preach the dual theme of open border and single currency because a continent of 1.2 billion people should depend on trade not aid," the Speaker told stakeholders in a special statement at the 12th African Leadership Magazine Persons Of The Year Awards ceremony held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Friday. "It is my submission that for us to build resilient African economies, we need open borders, embrace, invest and leverage technology and move faster towards a single African currency."
These measures, according to Koffa, would help create resilient African economies capable of adapting to challenges like climate change, global security concerns, and democratic setbacks.
"We need a borderless Africa, single currency and technology to build RESILIENT AFRICAN ECONOMIES, economies that can anticipate crisis, adjust and learn from those crises while maintaining direction and momentum even if we have to change routes and do new things or old things in different ways," he said.
To achieve these, many including Koffa believe that the strategy of having regional currencies first before a continent-wide convergence seems logical. "And I am sure there are good reasons for this approach but it is simply too slow and we are missing out on great opportunities," the Speaker told the audience.
Koffa expressed concern over the slow pace of regional initiatives towards a single currency and stressed the need to accelerate progress to unlock economic opportunities.
His reservations about the slow pace at which the regional single currency initiative, especially from the ECOWAS perspective, come from the backdrop that the Western region of the continent has postponed 5 times the conversion to single currency.
"The bigger economies like Nigeria and Ivory Coast and Ghana could not meet the inflation requirement, Nigeria, which will account for 65 percent of this conversion, has yet to own it and take leadership of it, and Francophone West Africa is still unwilling to relinquish its dependence of a colonial-era monetary system," he said. "But we must say a single African currency is indispensable in building resilient African economies."
Without the need to buy foreign currency to trade with each other, Africans will travel around the continent more, buy more goods and services from each other, and boost internal tourism. Koffa noted, "We as leaders on the African continent need to not wait for a perfect system but move beyond talk and commitment to concrete first steps."
He highlighted the benefits of open borders in facilitating trade and fostering closer ties among African nations.
Though progress is being made in signing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), full benefits won't be reaped unless land borders are open and facilitate intra-African trade, experts say. In the absence of open borders, the many horror stories from entrepreneurs who face endless demands for informal payments as they try to trade between our countries will continue to linger.
Koffa said, "We must continue our move towards open borders. The facilitation of the free movement of goods and services across the continent cannot be overemphasized and even ECOWAS is experiencing the benefits of that. We must turn to each other, trade with each other, and develop an African bond that makes us closer, in fact, and not just in theory. Open borders will do that."
Speaker Koffa is no doubt becoming a continental voice, as was recognized as the guest of honor at the African Leadership Magazine Persons Of The Year Awards Ceremony in Addis Ababa. He was the winner of the award last year. Held annually, the event brings together leaders from various sectors across Africa and focuses on discussing important issues related to the continent's socio-economic growth and development. It also celebrates individuals who embody people-centered leadership and promotes a pan-African agenda.
In his speech on Friday, Koffa underscored the role of technology in bridging infrastructure gaps and driving economic growth on the continent.
"As someone who was born before computers, or as the young folks refer to us, a 'BBC', I have come to learn that my smartphone is my family chair, the photo album, and my library... oh, and my office computer too.
"I speak about my relationship with technology because technology is central to building resilient economies on the continent. Technology allows us to connect without roads, ports, and bridges, this means even without building a railway or paving a road from Cape Town to Cairo, an Egyptian can sell a service to someone in Johannesburg, accept payment without leaving their living room," he noted.
The African Development Bank estimates the annual gap in Africa's infrastructure investment spending is between USD 68 billion to US 108 billion -- a gap, Koffa said Africans may never close unless technology is leveraged.
"We can make easy wins to generate the growth we need to be able to finance the hard infrastructure that we need in place," he said.
While many commentators on African economies speak about the continent's economic transformation in ways that suggest it has to do exactly what Europe or Asia did in order to attain the prosperity that those advanced economies have, Koffa differs, noting that there are alternative ways in which Africa can achieve the same goal.
"Consider, for example, that a lot of people on the continent went from never having a phone line into their huts or slum houses, straight to owning an iPhone or a smartphone. This leapfrogging can be applied in other ways too," he pointed out. "In the same way that we went from having some of the lowest landline connections to have mobile penetration rates in the upper 90s in the case of countries like Gabon and the Ivory Coast, it is the same way we can increase intra-African trade without having to build as much hard infrastructure.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"We can also do the same by building a vibrant ideas and services market on the continent using the power of the internet."
To properly leverage technology to leap over infrastructure gaps, he said there is a need to integrate and expand access to electronic payment systems and African leaders must balance security concerns with the need to move quickly.
"Most countries are being held back by excessive regulations that slow innovation. We are also underutilizing the systems we currently have. For example, in most of our countries people use mobile money systems chiefly to make internal remittances and, to a limited extent, to buy goods and services," he said. "We could capture way more value than that by moving to a wider electronic system platform and diversifying our payment systems so that one industry does not dominate the advancement."With the theme, "Building Resilient African Economies," this year's ceremony brought together over 300 participants, including policymakers, industry leaders, investors, academics, and development agencies. The event served as a platform for networking and exchanging ideas to advance Africa's development agenda. The ceremony continues to showcase and celebrate leaders who are committed to shaping Africa's future for the betterment of its people.
