{"id":79076,"date":"2019-06-12T06:15:22","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T04:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=79076"},"modified":"2019-06-12T06:15:22","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T04:15:22","slug":"integration-crucial-for-africa-afdb-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/06\/12\/integration-crucial-for-africa-afdb-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Integration crucial for Africa\u2014AfDB president"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Taonga Sabola, <\/strong>In Malabo, Equatorial Guinea: <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
ALL SET\u2014Delegates brainstorm ahead of the meeting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Africa Development Bank President, Akinwumi Adesina, has said the continent could develop with dignity if it could get regional integration right.<\/p>\n

Addressing reporters in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, ahead of the 54th annual meetings for the bank which start today, Adesina said regional integration gained momentum with the agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in March 2018 and was at the threshold of its launch next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we get our integration right, Africa will be more competitive, will be able to create a massive amount of jobs and, more importantly, Africa can develop in dignity and confidence,\u201d<\/em> Adesina said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The meetings are being held under the theme \u2018Regional Integration for Africa\u2019s Economic Prosperity\u2019 and have attracted representatives of all African countries, including Malawi.<\/p>\n

Adesina said the AfCFTA would constitute the world\u2019s largest free trade area, consolidating an integrated market of 1.3 billion consumers with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of about $3.4 trillion.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that Africa\u2019s GDP growth could reach 6 percent a year in a continent without borders.<\/p>\n

Adesina said AfDB had invested around $1 billion through various initiatives, including cross border infrastructure, to move trade across African borders.<\/p>\n

He said most of the investment had gone to small and medium enterprises which are widely considered as the engine of economic growth.<\/p>\n

The AfDB Chief said Equatorial Guinea was selected as host of the annual meetings because of its economic potential and because Central Africa could benefit a great deal from regional integration.<\/p>\n

Equatorial Guinea\u2019s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Cesar Mba Abogo, who cohosted the press interface, highlighted his country\u2019s significant efforts on the economic and infrastructure front, to connect markets in Central Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a real privilege to host the bank\u2019s annual meetings\u2026 the bank\u2019s High 5s are very much in line with our development strategy between now and 2025,\u201d<\/em> Abogo said, revealing that the country\u2019s road networks, both in Malabo and throughout the mainland, were better than across large parts of Africa.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He added that Equatorial Guinea had invested in social housing and would continue to improve human capital, through capacity building and training programmes, while recognising the challenges presented by skill shortages.<\/p>\n

The annual meetings will provide an opportunity for experts, governments, businesses, civil society, think tanks and academia to share candid assessments on regional integration efforts and dialogue on critical issues concerning Africa\u2019s development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Taonga Sabola, In Malabo, Equatorial Guinea: Africa Development Bank President, Akinwumi Adesina, has said the continent could develop with dignity if it could get regional integration right. Addressing reporters in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, ahead of the 54th annual meetings for the bank which start today, Adesina said regional integration gained momentum with the agreement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":79078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79079,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79076\/revisions\/79079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}