President William Ruto has challenged African nations to strive to be self-reliant for the continent to realise its dream of integration.
Addressing the opening session of the 5th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union in Nairobi, Ruto said integration would be difficult when over 60 per cent of the continent’s budget is financed by overseas partners.
“The demands of our challenging time require an AU that can pursue multiple, urgent and critical interventions using internally mobilised resources,” he stated.
Ruto added that the Pan-African movement has always been about sovereignty and chronic dependence on well-meaning partners is starkly inconsistent with the aspiration.
He added that the most compelling signal that African integration is unstoppable and that it will open doors for unprecedented socioeconomic transformation is the progress made in implementing the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.
“We must all be proud of this magnificent project, a historic achievement by and for ourselves, whose positive effects will reverberate throughout the world for a long time to come,” Ruto said.
Under, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, 54 countries have agreed to create a single market with a population of 1.4 billion and a Gross Domestic Product of US$ 3.4 trillion.
The free trade area is projected to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty and boost incomes by 7 per cent, or US$ 450 billion by 2035.
“As I have had occasion to remark before elsewhere, this is the magnitude of what typical Pan-African collective action can achieve, and we are only getting started,” Ruto stated.
He added that AU has made progress by collaborating in different domains, including peace and security, regional integration, investment, trade and development and climate change.
Ruto pointed out that Agenda 2063 is the continent’s blueprint to deliver the Pan-African vision of an integrated, prosperous, and peaceful Africa.
“Therefore, it is more critical now than ever before, that we marshal our collective consciousness, willpower, solidarity and unity, to fulfil our fundamental generational mandate of introducing Africa as a new global power, ready and able to provide leadership towards a new industrial age that shall simultaneously usher in an era of inclusive development,” he stated.
He added that the continent must make progress in exploring, developing and implementing solutions like the Kigali Decision (AU Decision 605 of 2016).
In July 2016, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government adopted the Decision directing all African Union Member States to implement a 0.2 per cent levy on eligible imports for to finance the African Union.
Ruto added that it was time to free up the African Union from structural and organisational constraints including duplication and other inefficiencies, thereby facilitating it to be effective on a greater scale.
He called on countries to pay special attention to the Africa Climate Summit (ACS), which takes place in Nairobi from September 4-6, 2023.
Ruto said the Summit will be a critical opportunity for the continent to accelerate the global energy transition and deliver African solutions to the COP28 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.