Africa can finance its own development, Janneh assures leaders
ECA Press Release No. 94/2011
Malabo (Equatorial Guinea), 30 June 2011 (ECA) - The United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, has assured African leaders that, with appropriate financial policies and judicious implementation, Africa would have no reason to wait for its development financing from outside the continent.
The UN official told a meeting of Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC) of NEPAD in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, that the “massive pension fund holding in Africa” as well as the “huge sales of telecommunications companies and the over-subscription of government bonds floated at home” show that there are many untapped sources of domestic resources that Africa needs to look into, according to the Information and Communication Services (ICS) of ECA.
The meeting was chaired by Mr. Meles Zenawi, Prime Minster of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, and attended by leaders of Algeria, Benin, several African leaders as well as by Mr. Jean Ping, Chairperson of the African Union Commission among others.
Titled “Innovative Policy Measures and Practical Steps for Mobilizing Domestic Resources to Achieve Development Effectiveness in Africa”, Mr. Janneh’s presentation represented the most detailed proposal yet on how the NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency might want to craft its strategy to spearhed Africa’s search for domestic resources for its own development.
“Development finance has been identified since the early post-independence era as a binding constraint on growth and development efforts in Africa”, Mr. Janneh said lauding the NPCA for putting the “matter back on the front burner by making resource mobilization one of its three pillars.”
He recognised the pertinence of the decision of the Heads of State and Government Conference (HOSGC) for taking a closer look at “domestic resource mobilisation which represents the best spirit of self-reliance that NEPAD embodies.”
Given the wide-spread poverty constantly reported in Africa, Mr. Janneh said that one might sound superfluous asking the question whether there are, indeed, any domestic resources available in Africa waiting to be mobilized.
He then went on to identify four keys areas that Africa could focus on, namely mobilizing public finance, managing natural resource revenues, tackling illicit capital flows and exploring domestic options for new and innovative development financing.
He advised that .while the mobilization of public finance entailing the strengthening of tax systems and the private sector remains a prime avenue; the management of revenues from natural resources; the tackling of illicit capital flows; and other forms of new and innovation domestic resource mobilization ought to be explored as well..
Turning to the domestic application of new and innovative forms of finance, he called for the NPCA to explore how best to raise additional resources at the domestic level in such areas.
“While the potential use of pension funds and public-private partnerships are relatively straight forward there are also possibilities to raise domestic resources from taxing speculative financial transactions”, he suggested.
He cited other options such as air travel levies, sovereign wealth funds including inter-generational funds based on exhaustible natural resources and carbon taxes dedicated for financing investments in clean energy..
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