The presidents of Ivory Coast, Ghana and Zimbabwe have called for more collaboration from the private sector to drive the desired growth in the continent with an estimated 5.6 trillion dollars of business opportunities waiting to be tapped.
They made this appeal Monday in their various presentations at the opening ceremony of the 6th edition of Africa Ceo forum in Abidjan.
Africa CEO Forum is the foremost annual meeting of the private sector in Africa where stakeholders meet to discuss and take learnings from success stories of the African private sector as well as dialogue and propose strategic solutions regarding the development of African enterprise and markets.
Alassane Ouattara, President of Ivory Coast in his opening speech on the main theme transformation said the private sector needs to improve productivity and performance adding that there are important opportunities for investment, but such opportunities have to be seized.
Ouattara observes that African continent has everything it takes to develop itself very quickly as it boost of 60 percent of the world’s arable land.
According to him, “By 2050 Africa will have the youngest population in the world – 1 person out of 5 will be an African. This will be a great opportunity only if the youth are well educated”
He called on private sector to seek further collaboration across the various sectors of the economy to growth the continent adding that what interests the leaders of the Africa continent not only private sector investments but also the points of views, advice and recommendations from industry players.
“Many people say that demography is a weight for the African continent. I can tell you that this is not our assessment”, he said.
Nana Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana, said it is important that the whole of Africa make systematic effort to turn backs on the sad history of extreme flights of capital from continent.
He advocated that the issue of flight of capital needs to be addressed. “Imagine what we could do if all this capital stays within our borders and how it could contribute to public structures”.
Akufo-Addo observes that it is important that Africa leaders pay attention to what their various countries can design for themselves in regards to the problems they have. To him, once there is a consensus, it will be easier to the tackle the continents problem.
According to him, “With Africa’s population set to reach 2 billion in 20 years’ time there are many opportunities to bring prosperity to our continent through hard work and innovation”
On his part, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe opines that there is an increasing need for Africa to expand her ICT infrastructure to adapt to the world today.
He maintain that a new era has dawned on his country as his administration’s top priority is for the resuscitation of the economy Zimbabwe which he said is now open for business as it strategies to build a new and prosperous country.
Jeune Afrique Media Group, organisers of the event in a statement said the event has recorded over 3,000 participating businesses from over 63 countries since its first edition in 2012 and continues to grow in popularity as an important setting for public-private sector dialogue.
According to the organisers, The Forum presents CEO’s and investors with the opportunity to meet high-level Government officials of African countries to gain deeper insights into economic development strategies on subjects ranging from the business environment to the most important public and private investment projects being implemented in their countries.
