AU urged to review the focus of the Union

AU urged to review the focus of the Union

The African Union (AU) has been urged to review the focus of the African Union (AU) and refocus it as a platform for advancing the economic integration of Africa.

The founder of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, and Chairman Heirs Holdings and Founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation, Mr Tony Elumelu, on Thursday gave the made the call at a conference at the Convergence Africa,” a pan-African conference, on entrepreneurship held in Nairobi, Kenya.

The entrepreneur icons agreed that addressing leadership challenges was fundamental to building a sustainable economy across Africa. They enlightened Africans on how to properly position the regional economy on the path of sustainable growth.

Engaging China in business

Elumelu argued that the AU has served its usefulness as a political vehicle for the decolonization of the continent.

He tasked business leaders and concerned stakeholders to engage the AU with the view of making the forum more relevant to the current economic needs.

The former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of United Bank for Africa (UBA), who spoke on “Building Businesses across African Boarders,” observed that a regional convergence was required on a number of economic issues, including how to properly engage Chinese, who have become very visible on the continent.

According to him, it would not work if individual countries continued to deal separately with them.
He charged the leaders of the continent to create an enabling environment that would support regional collaborations and encourage massive investments in different sectors, including the entire chain activities in the extractive industries.

Africa, the next frontier

According to him, it would be difficult to achieve the kind of development Africa desired “unless leaders free the economy for open participation and support economic activities with functional infrastructure.”

Citing the case of UBA, he said the expansion of the bank from a single country operation to a pan-African banking and financial services group that today has presence in 19 countries in the continent, has had tremendous impact on payment system and facilitation of intra-Africa trade.

Elumelu declared that “Africa is the next frontier but this will not happen if the leaders do not show confidence in the domestic market. Everyone has a role to play. We must create a pool that attracts those in the Diaspora to come back home.”

Branson said political leadership was a critical factor that shaped the growth of African economy in the past 50 years, concluding that “countries in Africa need better leadership.”

NP/Adekusibe/Williams