END AFRICA’S MARGINALISATION

The World Economic Forum on Africa ended in Dares Salaam with a strong message that governments and the private sector should put word into action, to reverse the continent’s economic marginalisation. President Jakaya Kikwete, who hosted the first WEF Africa conference outside South Africa since the forum’s inception two decades ago, said Africa must break the vicious circle of producing what it doesn’t consume and importing all its needs. He lamented that the continent endowed with vast natural resources claims a paltry 3.5 per cent of the world merchandise export and less than one per cent of the global foreign direct investment flows. The consensus among the record 1,000 delegates from 85 countries, who attended the conference, was that Africa should take charge of its destiny and invest more in modernisation of smallholder agriculture to create a base for industrialisation. Production of goods should target Africa’s one billion populations as the primary market to stimulate economic growth in the continent.