New trading partners needed to boost Africa's ag development
The forum, organised by the African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Belarusian Government brought together government officials and businesses in Belarus and Africa to explore more opportunities on trade relations.
Dr Bernard Oramah, the President of Afreximbank, who set the tone of discussion at the forum, said that, though the total African trade grew one trillion dollars in 2016, Africa had the potential to grow the trade volume exponentially in the next few years.
He said that the economic prosperity of the continent was, in the main, being stifled by poor infrastructure. Oramah said that the potential of the continent was derivable from its vast resources in land, agriculture, population, water and minerals.
“Africa faces deficits in production of major food crops from grains, meat, and tubers to fruits and vegetables, yet it boasts of 60 per cent of the world’s useable arable land. The continent is also rich in all imaginable metals and minerals,’’ he said.
Oramah said that to realise these abundant resources, there was the need for African countries to seek partners in the bid to transform these resources to wealth.
He identified Belarus in Eastern Europe as a young sovereign and developed country that could “walk the walk with Africa’’.
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