{"id":5941,"date":"2019-10-15T10:37:37","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T07:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=5941"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:36","slug":"kagame-africa-must-fund-her-own-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/10\/15\/kagame-africa-must-fund-her-own-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Kagame: Africa Must Fund Her Own Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Collins Mwai<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The African continent cannot\ncontinue to rely on foreign aid to finance its transformation, President Paul\nKagame has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kagame was speaking in\nAbidjan at the 8th CGECI (Conf\u00e9d\u00e9ration G\u00e9n\u00e9rale des Enterprises de C\u00f4te\nd\u2019Ivoire) Academy, the largest annual gathering of Private Sector in the West\nAfrican country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The summit brings together\nthe private sector of the West African countries and covers topics such as\navenues to grow competitiveness, relevance and growth among other topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWe have to reach a\npoint where our countries have the capacity to finance our own transformation.\nDevelopment aid has been useful and it continues to be useful, especially when\nwe work to get the most impact out of every cent that we receive. But the point\nhas never been to remain dependent forever when we have always had the\npotential to be wealthy ourselves,\u201d Kagame said during the keynote address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than continuously look\nto other countries for aid, Kagame said that there are more productive ways for\nAfrica to partner with various countries and regions for mutual benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s conference is\nthemed around creating a conducive business climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To create a more conducive\nbusiness climate, Kagame said deliberation among public and private sector from\nvarious countries are crucial to share connections and experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne way to advance this\ncause, is through forums like this one. Coming together here, we make useful\nconnections, share experiences, and learn from each other. The starting point\nis ensuring that relevant actors in both the public and private sectors get\ninvolved for the right reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, what we seek is\nto attract and retain the maximum levels of investment we can, both domestic\nand foreign, to grow our economies and generate wealth of our citizens,\u201d he\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opportunities should not be\nlost to regulatory barriers or other unnecessary delays, Kagame said, noting\nthat some of the factors were well within the stakeholders\u2019 control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citing Rwanda\u2019s experience in\nimproving the business ecosystem, Kagame said that country mobilized every\ngovernment agency as well as members of the private sector to contribute to the\nreforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe stakes were high and a\nconsistent focus on key indicators, has led to good results. Therefore, there\nis no reason not to do what is within our capacity. We will all directly feel\nthe benefits of doing just that,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that the agenda and\nplans are timely they complement the African Continental Free Trade Area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach country and region has\nto do its part to ensure the success of the economic integration that we all\nwant to see. We are counting on you and your colleagues around Africa to\nsustain that momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are well-placed to\nmobilize our business communities to seize this exceptional chance. Now is the\ntime to prepare for the implementation phase and capitalize on the benefits\nthat the African Continental Free Trade Area holds, for everyone involved,\u201d he\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President urged African\ngovernments to be supportive of the private sector and work with them in the\nprocess of eliminating barriers to doing business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The governments, he said also\nought to be involved in equipping young people with skills and training to make\nthe most of the emerging opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGovernments must also do\ntheir part, to listen to, and work with the private sector, to overcome\nexisting barriers to doing business. We must also ensure that young people are\nequipped with the education and training required, to take advantage of new\nopportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, it is\ncritical to invest in building positive mindsets in Africa\u2019s young people,\nespecially around entrepreneurship and innovation. Just as you are doing\nthrough your mentorship programme,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Held twice a year, the CGECI\nacademy is the largest gathering of the private sector in Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 8th edition of CGECI\nAcademy brings together private sector from across West Africa with Rwanda\nfeaturing as the Guest Country with the aim of exchanging lessons on improving doing\nbusiness and enabling private sector to reach its full potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Close to 50 members of the\nRwandan Private Sector from diverse fields ranging from agriculture,\nmanufacturing and ICT are also taking part and are scheduled to hold business\nto business meetings with members of the Ivorian private sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Original\nArticle<\/a> On The New Times.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Collins Mwai The African continent cannot continue to rely on foreign aid to finance its transformation, President Paul Kagame has said. Kagame was speaking in Abidjan at the 8th CGECI…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}