Statement By Amb. Albert Muchanga, African Union Commissioner, Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals at the Meeting of the Senior Official of Ministries in charge of Industry and Economic Diversification
In this connection, I think I speak for everybody in this meeting when I request Her Excellency, Ministerto convey our sincere gratitude to His Excellency M. Mohammed BAZOM, President of the Republic Niger, the Government and the People of the Republic of Niger for the distinctively warm welcome, hospitality and conducive environment for the conduct of business of the Senior Officials in this Joint Meeting.
The results of the processes of industrialization and economic diversification in Africa show that our efforts in leveraging these since from the time our countries attained independence show that we have not generated the outcomes we want. And this productive transformation is business unusual. LET ME STRESS: BUSINESS UNUSUAL. We have, in this connection, to differentiate our new efforts with those of the past by being more innovative.
Similarly, the development of regional and continental pharmaceutical value chains can end the current situation of Africa’s health marginalization, an issue I will come back to later in my statement. At the level of the African Union Commission, we are recommending to you, the Ministers and the Assembly to approve that we embark, starting with a feasibility study, on the process of establishing an African Manufacturing Institute with campuses in each of the five regions of Africa.
This is currently demonstrated by the concept note and draft decision before you from the African Group of Ambassadors in Geneva.Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization held in Geneva this year, among others, came up with a decision on waiver of intellectual property rights to cover the production of COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics to remove Africa’s and other developing countries’ health marginalization.
One of the steps we have done in this direction is to highlight the demand for industrial products in Africa as a major opportunity for manufacturing on the Continent.
However, these opportunities are largely ignored by the global investment community because Africa is seen as a high-return but also high-risk investment destination. As a result of this, it is estimated that over US$ 10 trillion currently sits in negative yield bonds in developed country capital markets, ignoring Africa’s high returns because of the perceptions of high risk.
I would like to add more to the challenge of climate change by saying that estimates by the African Development Bank show that although the African continent only contributes to 3% of global emissions, Africa has been losing 5 to 15% of her per capita Gross Domestic Product growth because of climate change and its related adverse impacts of heat waves, floods and droughts.