Experts call for Abolishing of Trade, Travel Restrictions in Order to Integrate Africa

PARTICIPANTS at the on-going Infrastructure Africa Business Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa, have called for the urgent abolishing of travel and trade restrictions if Africa is to truly integrate.

The participants have pointed out that efforts by the African Union and those of the continent’s fore-fathers to unite the 54 countries will be futile as long as individual nations continued placing emphasis on restrictions on citizens’ movement across the continent.

Speaking during a ministers’ debate on the theme ‘Regional Integration and Gender’, Uganda’s Minister for Public Works and Transport, Mr. John Byabagambi, said countries should lessen export restrictions in order to help the process of Africa’s integration.

Mr. Byabagambi noted that leaders should realize that integration will eventually be realised whether they liked it or not as evidenced from the free interaction that has naturally taken place across borders in various parts of the countries.

“This integration will come whether we like it or not because people have always felt that by nature they needed to socialise without being hindered by some form of laws or visas or passports,” Mr. Byabagambi said.
The Minister hailed the eastern African bloc which he said had taken remarkable steps towards integrating Africa. He pointed out that the region had abolished the requirement for work permits for a national of any of the member countries to work in another country for as long as they had the right qualifications.

African Union (AU) Commissioner, Dr. Elham Ibrahim who agreed with Mr. Byabagambi disclosed that as part of attaining continental integration, the AU had introduced passports for commissioners working in the organisation and that this would be extended to Heads of State and their Foreign Affairs Ministers at the next AU Summit to be held in Kigali.

The AU passport exempts holders from prior visa applications and allows them to obtain these at the port of entry whenever they travelled on the continent.

“Regional integration is a must for Africa. This is a flagship project that will contribute to real integration. This Univisa will be distributed further at the Kigali meeting to Heads of State and their Foreign Affairs at the next meeting of the African Union,” Dr. Ibrahim said.

Malian Minister of Works, Transport and Integration, Mr. Mamadou Koumare also spoke against restriction of movement by people on the continent through instruments such as visas.

Mr. Koumare urged individual countries to ensure that they implemented decisions made at regional level if the continent was to make meaningful progress on issues such as integration.

And speaking earlier, Mrs. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi from the African Development Bank (ADB) said infrastructure was key to Africa as this was the “DNA” of today’s world. Mrs. Fraser-Moleketi said the state of infrastructure in any country determined how much that country would be able to trade and eventually grow its economy.

“In today’s world, a country’s infrastructure has to be top class. If Africa’s infrastructure is second class, then Africa will be second grade,” Mrs. Fraser-Moleketi said.

Dr. Ibrahim pointed out that it was time that infrastructure development in Africa was treated as a business and not as a mere social aspect of the economy.

She also urged countries to extend transportation infrastructure to rural areas where 70 per cent of the population lived, with women and children having to walk long distances carrying heavy loads to get to a point where they could get some form of transportation.

The AU Commissioner urged the continent to better manage the available water resources so that this could easily be made available whenever needed.

“Without infrastructure, it is impossible to attract investment. We need to look at investing in the energy sector where we have a lot of potential as a continent.”

This year’s event being held at the Sandton Convention Centre has brought together a gathering of public sector, private sector and civil society representatives from across the continent.

And an infrastructure expert, Ms. Tas Anvaripour from Abraaj Group, has advised that governments have to partner with the private sector through public-private-partnership models as these were the best infrastructure development vehicles. She said the private sector, which had the finances, could build infrastructure, operate and later on transfer to government.

Ms. Anvaripour said the advantage of this approach was that the government would not need to borrow for such purposes.

She further advised that governments should also cut down on awarding contracts through the tendering process as this was inclined to wasting a lot of time. She said governments should instead engage with the private sector through an “open book” approach where bilateral terms were considered.

“The fear of corruption is taken care of as the private sector would be openly talking to a number of officials in the process of arranging for a contract. Besides, there is still the risk of corruption even in the tendering approach,” she said.