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Minister Mumbengegwi

Paidamoyo Chipunza Senior Reporter
The fourth African Union Ministerial retreat of the AU executive council says there is need to invest in mineral mapping in Africa to ascertain their quality, value and location and leverage on the data when negotiating deals .

In a statement released after the retreat held in Nairobi, Kenya, last week, the ministers said recent commodity booms and bursts bore evidence to the fact that there was no substitute for value addition and beneficiation of raw materials.

They also noted that there was an urgent need for both vertical and horizontal diversification to address Africa’s dependency on a single commodity and that Africa should continue investing in agriculture as it remained the back bone of industrialisation.

“Africa has the potential to finance its own development if it taps into its domestic resources mechanisms such as taxation, Diaspora remittances, banks revenues, private equity, mineral earnings, remittances securitisation, stock market capitalisation and rapidly growing pensions assets,” reads the statement.

African leaders were challenged to address the Africa paradox of rich Africa but poor Africans considering that colonialism created a scenario where Africa was reduced to producers of raw materials to feed the capitalist machinery.

This has also resulted in an unequal relationship between African and its former colonisers in the developed world, which has seen a guarantee in the flow of raw materials from Africa to developed world.

As such, the ministers agreed that Africa must take painful decisions to change that status quo although it might face resistance from those benefiting from the system.

“African countries should brace for resistance, including sanctions. However, these are short term deterrence, the long term prospects are bright,” reads the statement.

The meeting also agreed that there was also need to expedite regional integration to foster trade, free movement of goods and people, infrastructure development and realise Agenda 2063 which is a solid foundation for a united Africa.

“The ministerial retreat outcomes will be submitted to the executive council and ultimately to the Assembly of Heads of State and Government meeting to be held in Kigali, Rwanda in July 2016,” further reads the statement.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi led the Zimbabwe delegation to the meeting whose agenda included the African paradox, Agenda 2063 and Africa integration index.

The African paradox was included on the agenda following the initiative by Minister Mumbengegwi during the executive council’s retreat that was held in Mekelle, Ethiopia, in January.