A G20 Partnership with Africa has potential – if the continent’s governments step up.
Mo Ibrahim writes in the Financial Times today with Aliko Dangote and Donald Kaberuka on Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel placing a new G20 Partnership with Africa on the agenda of the upcoming G20 Summit.
The trio write that:
As Africans and investors, we share her view of the potential of Africa’s many emerging economies. But there is great risk if we do not seize this potential positively. The continent’s population has doubled since 1985 and will double again to 2.5bn by 2050. Twenty-two and a half million new jobs are required each year. We must urgently remedy the lack of investment into this African youth boom.
and:
To succeed, the new G20 Africa Partnership must be about more than just private-sector compacts. Governments must also keep their promises to invest in their people. African leaders have made countless promises to invest more in education, health and agriculture. These promises must be clearly kept and international partnership only offered to African governments that are themselves good servants to their own citizens.
