Ahead of the AU summit on Industrialization and Economic Diversification, ONE Campaign is advocating for a raft of urgent and bold policy actions to tap youth potential towards building a better and prosperous Africa.
The highly anticipated summit will be held later this month in Niger as Africa recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and grapples with after-shocks from global economic and political events.
With its booming young population that accounts for 60 percent of all of the continent’s jobless, Africa needs to create about 15 million new decent jobs yearly.
In a statement, ONE Campaign calls on African leaders and policymakers to commit to the following priority actions that are critical for driving economic prosperity and job creation through industrialisation.
According to the organisation, firstly, African governments should implement national industrial policies that stimulate investments into sectors that are both competitive and labour-intensive.
“National policies should provide well-targeted tax incentives that can attract investors and spur job creation. Policy reforms should also reduce tariffs on the importation of essential machinery and equipment that are not locally created,” the statement states.
“National level legislation should establish equity and guarantee funds to de-risk investment in start-ups. Laws should also protect intellectual property rights, simplify and automate administrative procedures, harmonize tax administration, and make information readily available through one-stop digital platforms.”
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The organisation states that at the local level, smallholder farmers should be supported to produce aggregation centres for grading, storage, sales, and processing of their goods to boost incomes and minimise wastage.
“They should also be facilitated to access credit, subsidized loans, grants and financial services.”
“Regionally, the top priority is for countries to foster investment and trade by operationalizing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) launched in January 2021,” it states.
“Trading under the continental free trade pact was launched in January 2021. Once fully implemented, AfCFTA will create a single African market for goods and services, covering about 1.4 billion people with a combined gross domestic product of more than 2.5 trillion U.S. dollars across Africa.”
Secondly, ONE Campaign urges countries to prioritize action to improve the business environment to make it easy and affordable to produce goods and services, and trade.
“African countries can start by adopting AU protocols on free movement, allowing youth to access markets and compete freely for work and business across national borders.”
According to ONE Campaign, the third priority action is to invest in cleaner infrastructure that supports industrialisation, job creation, and income generation. Expanding road and transport networks will open up connectivity to rural areas and the regional hinterland.
“Clean, renewable off-grid energy solutions can complement national plans to improve access to reliable and affordable power. And to reduce the digital divide, countries should incentivize investments to achieve 90 percent internet penetration across Africa by 2030.”
“Above all, the Summit must accept the reality that Africa is made up of a dynamic, vibrant, and productive population, and who are the continent’s biggest asset and driver of economic growth and social development.”
