Sierra Leone's president urges Africans to use borders for economic prosperity at Davos

By Mevlut Ozkan

ISTANBUL (AA) - Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio on Tuesday called on African nations to use their borders to support economic prosperity, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“We are guarding our sovereignty, using the boundaries to separate us instead of using them to unite us towards economic prosperity for our citizens,” he told an event titled How Can Africa Prosper in the New Economy?

Bio said he was working on a West African economic summit under the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) focused on the private sector, aimed at identifying practical steps to break down borders so businesses can operate freely.

“We as leaders need to change as quickly as the world itself is changing,” he stressed.

The global environment was changing so fast that many had missed the point, Bio said.

He added that mobilizing foreign capital was increasingly difficult because of concerns about Africa’s investment climate and profit repatriation, even as foreign investors continued to seek access to the continent’s resources.

“We do not have a collective bargaining power as a continent,” the president said.

He noted that institutions such as the Africa Finance Corporation and Afreximbank had recently become more aggressive in supporting African ventures, adding that he would encourage them to do so.

- Slow market integration could leave continent’s potential unrealized

Wamkele Keabetswe Mene, secretary-general of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), said that if market integration in Africa is not accelerated, the continent will remain a continent of potential and may never realize it.

He explained that Africa’s fragmented market, with 42 currencies, limited industrial development, high infrastructure costs, restricted movement of 1.4 billion people, and a $3.4 trillion GDP, contributes less than 3% to global trade.

Mene said 50 countries have ratified Africa’s free trade area, reflecting political will remove barriers to intra-Africa trade and investment, while investment currently stands at just 4%.

“We are rapidly transitioning from negotiations to implementation,” he said.

Mene added that in September, under the leadership of Kenyan President William Ruto, the African Union champion on climate change, around 10 commercial banks, including development finance institutions, collectively committed $100 billion from their own balance sheets to support green industrial development on the continent.

“This is an example that actually the continent of Africa can do it,” he also said.

“Maybe the scalability can be debated, but we have the capability to mobilize the capital that is already there.”