Barely a week after Tony Elumelu’s opinion article titled, ‘Time for a New US Engagement with Africa,’ was published in The Hill, an American newspaper and digital media company based in Washington DC, Joe Biden, the president of the United States of America, has called for the need to initiate and sustain trade as well as investment relationships between the United States and African countries.
In a swift response, President Biden released an official statement, confirming a US-Africa Leaders Summit slated for December.
In the article, Elumelu, the chairman of Heirs Holdings, Transcorp, and founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, reflected on America’s absence on the African continent by asking the question, ‘where is America in all of this?’
While calling for a “catalyst for a sustained, substantive relationship between Africa and the U.S”, President Biden issued a strong response, reinforcing “the United States’ enduring commitment to Africa and the importance of U.S.-Africa relations.”
President Biden said he looks forward to hosting leaders from across the African continent in Washington DC on December 13-15, 2022, for the US-Africa Leaders Summit.
The summit, Biden said, will demonstrate the United States enduring commitment to Africa, and will underscore the importance of US-Africa relations and increased cooperation on shared global priorities.
“The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit will build on our shared values to better foster new economic engagement; reinforce the US-Africa commitment to democracy and human rights; mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and of future pandemics; work collaboratively to strengthen regional and global health; promote food security; advance peace and security; respond to the climate crisis, and amplify diaspora ties.
“I look forward to working with African governments, civil society, diaspora communities across the United States, and the private sector to continue strengthening our shared vision for the future of US-Africa relations,” Biden explained.
President Biden’s assurances on Africa are coming after Elumelu had on The Hill medium disclosed the efforts and interventions so far made by the European Union, China, Japan, among others, and wondered why America was seemingly not interested in helping Africa.
He noted in his piece that when he, Elumelu, visited Washington this spring to explore partnership opportunities with the US government, he wondered what kind of reception to expect, noting that although President Biden pledged early in his term to reengage with the continent, major policy initiatives remain unclear, and America’s absence on the continent has been felt.
According to Elumelu, this contrasts with US allies and adversaries alike, who continue to show real commitment in their relationships.
He recalled that in February, at the sixth European Union-African Union Summit, leaders of the 27 European Union nations welcomed 40 African heads of state to Brussels and committed €150 billion in investments targeting health, education, digital innovation, and transportation infrastructure, and green energy.
At the concurrent EU-Africa Business Forum (EABF), the Tony Elumelu Foundation celebrated its €20 million partnership with the European Commission which empowered 2,500 young women entrepreneurs across Africa. Last November, China hosted its eighth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Senegal, and later this year Japan will convene its eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Tunisia.
“I wanted to know: Where is America in all of this?” Elumelu stated.
Elumelu, who was named on Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2020, said in his conversations with US policymakers that he found a genuine interest in re-engaging Africa, in a manner that prioritises mutual benefit and self-reliance.
Discussion of a second US-Africa Leaders’ Summit expected to be held this September — an event which Secretary of State, Antony Blinken first committed to last year — could demonstrate that the Biden administration is ready to stand up and be counted among Africa’s partners.
“At a dinner in Tanzania in 2013 around the launch of Power Africa, I joined other African business leaders in advising then-President Barack Obama to use the convening power of his office to engage more with the African private sector. A year later, we had the first US-Africa Leaders Summit and US-Africa Business Forum. The energy in Washington, the enthusiasm for Africa, was unlike anything I had seen before. As such, I look forward to a second US-Africa Leaders’ Summit. The U.S. has an enormous amount of goodwill in Africa that needs to be channeled — and getting the public and private sectors at the table is critical.
“As an investor in over 20 African countries and founder of the largest entrepreneurship programme on the continent, I would particularly like to see an event that prioritises trade, investment, and business linkages, including the role of SMEs and young entrepreneurs. The power of the private sector to drive economic growth and social development in Africa is at the core of my economic philosophy of Africapitalism,” Elumelu’s article reads in parts.
He mentioned that another key component of Africapitalism is the need for an accountable public sector to create the enabling environment for businesses to thrive, adding that African governments must be pushed to do a better job of providing security, infrastructure, and the policy reforms necessary to encourage growth — and they must hear this message not only from their own people but from international partners like the US.
He further said that he firmly believes that the transformation of Africa must be driven by Africans and that it must be driven by the younger generation.
According to Elumelu, Africa needs partnerships that foster a collaborative approach to building infrastructure, investing in human capital, and generating economic opportunities that will bring mutual prosperity and this summit represents an opportunity to build that kind of partnership.
“It has been encouraging to hear support for this summit from important constituencies, including the diplomatic corps, private sector groups, and congress, where enhanced US-Africa engagement has long enjoyed rare bipartisan support.
“In May the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution cosponsored by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and my good friend, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), referring to the promised summit as ‘an important opportunity to strengthen ties between the United States and African partners’ and calling for a roadmap for planning future summits and other events,” he said.
Elumelu said while this may seem that high-level diplomatic summits can be just a backdrop for photo-ops, there is real value.
For him, first, a high-level, media-saturated event provides motivation for deals to get done, as meetings can spark new bilateral or multilateral government initiatives or public-private partnerships.
Read also: Tony Elumelu Storytellers Fund to give African creatives up to $2000
He acknowledged that high-level linkages are also critical to shaping policy, adding that the conversations that take place will provide an opportunity for US officials to hear directly from African stakeholders.
“Let policymakers hear the needs of a diverse continent of people that want investment, not only aid assistance,” he said.
Elumelu had stated that the symbolic impact of these events is important.
According to him, his greatest wish for a second summit would be to see African entrepreneurs sharing the stage with heads of state. “This is an image that would clearly say to the world: The US is engaging with Africa in a whole new way.
“We need a catalyst for a sustained, substantive relationship between Africa and the US. There is so much to gain from our shared history, culture, and outlook. The second summit could be the beginning of a new chapter in US-Africa relations, one in which we engage as equal partners, leverage the power of the private sector, and reimage support in a form that promotes self-reliance and independence, “Elumelu added.
Elumelu has continued to be a shining star for Nigeria across the globe. Not only that he has impacted and still impacting several lives on the continent of Africa and beyond, he has also taken it upon himself to be an ambassador for continent. Hence, his recently “cry for help” that seems to have been heard in the right quarters.
Within a space of two years, his philanthropic gestures have attracted serious attention, fetching him the prestigious TIME 100 honours’ list.
First time was in 2020, when his name was announced as one of the ‘TIME 100’ most influential individuals in the world that year. The feat was celebrated by the army of young men and women whose lives have been given a meaning through the entrepreneurial initiatives of the serial entrepreneur.
Tony Elumelu is a leading investor and philanthropist. The Tony Elumelu Foundation has funded, mentored, and trained over 15,000 entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries and connected over one million African entrepreneurs through the TEFConnect digital network.
