The Africa We Want Series with Baptista.

Without necessarily sacri cing our sovereignties, we can forge a political union based on defence, foreign a airs and diplomacy, and a common citizenship, an African currency, a monetary zone and a central bank. We must unite in order to achieve the full liberation of our continent.” – Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. "Unity is strength, division is weakness." Says a Swahili African proverb. A strong, united, resilient and in uential global player and partner is the Africa We want utilizing its natural resources fully to support the international development of the African continent.

This is very possible and doable. His Excellence President Akufo-Addo, other African and Caribbean leaders headline Afreximbank’s (Bank) 2023 Annual Meetings in Accra this weekend.

The mission and vision statements of the Bank is “to stimulate a consistent expansion, diversi cation and development of African trade, while operating as a rst class, pro t-oriented, socially responsible nancial institution and a center of excellence in African trade matters, looking forward to be the trade nance bank for Africa. Finance helps businesses for multiple purposes, ranging from enhancing working capital, expansion, purchasing new assets, replenishing stock, hiring more sta , or re nancing to pay o existing debt at minimum amongst others. Why the, do we need Afreximbank to support the international development of Africa.African Development Bank (AfDB's) primary objective is to assist African countries –individually and collectively - in their e orts to achieve economic development and social progress. The institution's main challenge is to reduce poverty on the

By Baptista S. Gebu (Mrs.)

continent. To this end, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) which is a pan-African supranational multilateral nancial institution was created in 1993 under the auspices of the African Development Bank. Its purpose is the nancing, promoting and expanding of intra-African and extra-African trade. It was established by African governments, African private and institutional investors, and non-African nancial institutions and private investors. African Export–Import Bank, also referred to as Afreximbank or Banque Africaine d’Import-Export was o cially launched at the rst general meeting of the shareholders in Abuja Nigeria in West Africa in October 1993. Headquartered in Cairo Egypt, the bank is a nancial provider to African governments and private businesses in support of African trade.

Don’t forget the blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa has considered and is working towards an Africa which has an integrated high speed train network with an African commodities strategy, a functioning African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) operating an African passport where free movement of people is enabled and not perceived free moment with porous borders, silence the guns, be able to implement the grand INGA Dam project and establish a single African air-transport market, an annual African Economic Forum, an African nancial institution, the Pan –African e-network, the Africa outer space strategy, an African virtual and E-University and be able to put in place a cyber-security, great African museum as well as an encyclopedia about the continent.

Considering the promotion of African trade, my previous article highlighted that, AfCFTA is the largest free trade area in the world measured by the number of countries participation with a combined gross domestic product of $3.4 trillion as it connects 1.3 billion people, now 1.4 billion people across the 56 countries. As at December 2022, 54 out of the 55 member states of the AU signed the AfCFTA agreement where 44 African countries deposited their instrument of rati cation with the African Union commission. The interesting bit of the discourse is that, AfCFTA has the potential to lift 30 million people from extreme poverty as it’s expected to boost Africa’s income by some $450 billion by the year 2035 representing a 7% gain.

The creation of this single market for goods and services will allow African countries to trade amongst themselves duty-free and quota-free. The agreement to establish this AfCFTA was signed far back in March 2018 in Rwanda on the 21st day in Kigali however trading o cially commenced on January 1, 2021. And commercially meaningful trading o cially also started in October, 2022 exactly on the 7the day of the month. Afreximbank has some 50 African member-countries with four regional locations in Harare, which serves countries covering its Southern African zone. Abidjan covering countries in francophone Western Africa. Abuja for Anglophone West Africa, Kampala for Eastern Africa as well as Yaoundé covering countries in Central Africa with its Representative O ce in the Caribbean yet to be announced.

Established in 1993 to promote and nance extra- and intra-African trade, the Agreement establishing the Bank and the Bank’s Charter were adopted at the constituent general assembly meeting of the Bank held at the AfDB headquarters in Abidjan on 8 May 1993. All the countries demanding to become participating states in the Bank signed the Agreement and states that wanted to become shareholders signed its Charter. The Bank Agreement confers on the Bank the status of an international organization with full juridical personality under the laws of participating states. Under the Agreement, participating states grant to the Bank, in their territories, certain immunities, exemptions, privileges, and concessions to facilitate the Bank’s business in those territories. Being launched in October 1993, its rst General Meeting of Shareholders took place in Abuja where they began operations in 1994 and concluded its rst deal that year by participating in a $150-million syndicated loan to the Cocoa Board of Ghana to which it contributed $6.5 million. I think, its therefore not a mere coincidence Ghana is to host its 30th Annual General Meeting and celebration from this weekend at the Accra International Conference center where His Excellence President Akufo-Addo, other African and Caribbean leaders are scheduled to headline the Afreximbank’s 2023 Annual Meetings, which also is its 30th anniversary. From South Africa, to Egypt last year, Ghana will be hosting this very important business meeting. The four-day Afreximbank Annual Meetings (AAM2023), is being held under the theme, delivering the vision: building prosperity for Africans, which will feature keynote addresses, panel discussions, plenaries and reside-type conversations focusing on African trade, trade nance and development issues, including the implementation of the AfCFTA. The Bank’s annual meetings are attended by business and political leaders, banking industry professionals, trade and trade nance practitioners and other parties involved in economic development from across Africa and beyond where this meeting have been ranked among the most important gatherings of economic decision makers in Africa, and are covered by the African and international media. Ghana is hosting AAM2023, and should be your investment destinations because; there is availability of skilled and trainable labour, with one of the most competitive minimum wages in the West African sub region. The country possess one of the highest literacy rates in the West African sub –region and has a growing middle class population with stable democratic climate and geographically closer than any other country to the center of the planet with an average of 8 hours of ying time to Europe and the Americas. Ghana has been ranked the second most peaceful African country in the world according to the 2022 edition of the Global Peace Index report for 2022.

The Africa we want shall be a strong, united, resilient, peaceful and in uential global player and partner with a signi cant role in world a airs. The ideal Africa shall be a major partner in global a airs with peaceful co-existence taking full responsibility for nancing her development. This we can achieve by improving Africa’s partnerships and refocusing them more strategically to respond to African priorities for growth and transformation; and ensuring that the continent has the right strategies to nance its own development and reducing aid dependency. As evidence, trade and not aid is what Africa needs.

The Africa we want is possible and attainable but we rst need a change mindset to accept this reality as we pull in investment for development. The complete Africa-nization of our body, soul and might is needed now more than ever and our ability to emancipate ourselves also from mental slavery and accept the grass is greener here in Africa because we have and possess most rich natural mineral resources. We need that change mindset rst.

“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family”.

The Africa we want in the Agenda 2063 blueprint has some challenges. There are challenges in nancing the Agenda 2063. There is recognition within Africa that the continent needs to tap into its own wealth to nance its development agendas, most notably the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Signi cant e orts have been made to map the untapped alternative sources of nancing from within Africa.

Some of the main nancing challenges of Agenda 2063 include: lack of nancial resources, inadequate infrastructure and limited access to nance: The African Union has identi ed that one of the main challenges facing the implementation of Agenda 2063 is the lack of nancial resources. Inadequate infrastructure is another challenge facing its implementation. The AU identied the need for signi cant investment in infrastructure development in order to achieve the goals set out in Agenda 2063. Limited access to nance is another challenge facing the implementation of Agenda 2063 where the need for increased access to nance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to promote economic growth and development is needed. Africa is rich in natural resources ranging from arable land, water, oil, natural gas, minerals, forests and wildlife. The continent holds a huge proportion of the world’s natural resources, both renewables and non-renewables so why is this not re ecting all across board?

According to research from the UN Environmental Programme, mapping Africa’s natural resources from Al-Jazeera, and the National Geographic Soci- ety’s Africa resources report; some African countries house these natural resources; Algeria has petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, uranium, lead, zinc. Where Angola also owns petroleum, diamonds, iron ore, phosphates, copper, feldspar, gold, bauxite. Benin is home to small o shore oil deposits, limestone, marble, timber. Botswana to diamonds, copper, nickel, salt, soda ash, potash where Burkina Faso is to manganese, limestone, marble; small deposits of gold and diamonds. Burundi is to nickel, uranium, rare earth oxides, peat, cobalt, copper as Cameroon is home to petroleum, bauxite, iron ore, timber, hydropower. Cape Verde is home to salt, Central African Republic also to diamonds (especially at Carnot), gold (at numerous sites throughout the country), and uranium (in the region of Bakouma). Chad is home to petroleum (including recently discovered reserves), uranium (in the north), natron (a salt like chemical used in soap manufacture), gold and Comoros is to small mineral resources; marine salt. Congo (Brazzaville) to petroleum (mostly o shore), timber; potash; lead; zinc; uranium; copper; phosphates; gold; magnesium; natural gas; hydropower. Congo (Kinshasa) to cobalt (world’s largest producer), copper (world’s ninth largest producer), diamond (world’s fth largest producer by volume). Whiles Cote d'Ivoire to o shore oil and natural gas deposits. Djibouti houses geothermal areas. Egypt to petroleum products and related goods such as fertilizers and minerals including iron ore and phosphates. Equatorial Guinea to petroleum (o shore), timber. Eritrea to gold, potash, zinc, copper, salt, possibly oil and natural gas.

Eswatini (Swaziland) to asbestos, coal, clay, cassiterite, hydropower where Ethiopia to small reserves of gold, platinum, copper, potash, natural gas, hydropower. Then Gabon to petroleum, manganese, uranium, gold, timber and Gambia to silica sand. Ghana is the continent’s largest producer of gold, followed by South Africa and Mali. Ghana also houses cocoa beans, diamonds, manganese, and bauxite reserves, limestone, iron ore, salt, oil and natural gas reserves, sawn wood, timber amongst others. Guinea houses bauxite (world’s largest reserves), aluminum, iron ore, diamonds, gold, uranium and Guinea-Bissau to sh. Kenya to limestone, soda ash, salt, gemstones. Lesotho to diamonds, Liberia to iron ore, timber, diamonds. Libya to petroleum products and related goods such as fertilizers and minerals including iron ore and phosphates. Madagascar to graphite, chromite, coal, bauxite, rare earth elements. Malawi to limestone, arable land. Mali to gold (third largest producer in Africa) and cotton. Mauritania to iron ore (large deposits), gypsum, Mauritius to arable land and Morocco to phosphates (world’s largest reserves), lead, zinc, silver. Mozambique to coal (world’s ninth largest reserves), titanium. Namibia to diamonds (world’s eighth largest producer by volume), uranium (world’s fourth largest producer). Niger to uranium (world’s fourth largest producer), coal then Nigeria to petroleum products and several other resources from Africa. These richness in natural resources must re ect in the economic gains and wellbeing of its citizenry. This is the Africa we want, which must also tell the African story the African way. Baptista is the author of the book: Prepare for the Future of Work and the CEO of FoReal HR Services in Ghana. As a Hybrid professional, building a team of e cient & e ective workforce is her business. A ecting lives is her calling! She is a Public and Keynote Conference Speaker, a Professional Connector, Trade Facilitator and a Researcher. You can reach her via e-mail on bap.tista@outlook.com Follow her social media pages @Sarahtistagh and the hashtag #theFutureofWorkCapsules #FoWC, #forealhrservices #TheAfricaWeWant