ABHIK KUMAR CHANDA, Dakar | Wednesday
NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday closed an international conference aimed at obtaining funds for an ambitious African development programme, but many delegates said the event was basically a talk-shop.
Obasanjo said in his closing remarks that he rejected perceptions that the continent was a risky investment destination.
Obasanjo, one of the main architects of Nepad along with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki and Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika, lambasted Western perceptions that Africa was a dangerous place to do business in.
“I have always heard that. Yet they do business in Africa,” he said.
“Where in the world do you get 30 to 35% return on investment? These people they sit down in London, Paris, New York and Brussels and do risk assessment reports based on reports from people who know little or nothing of Africa.”
“Look at the number of enterprises that failed in the developed countries and look at the number that failed in Africa. What risk are you talking about?”
Obasanjo, who was due to have opened the meeting on financing the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) on Monday, arrived here on Tuesday afternoon to close the event.
He apologised for the delay saying he could not “cancel a visit by the Chinese president (Ziang Zemin).”
The Nigerian president also denied that corruption was more prevalent in Africa than elsewhere, adding: “Assuming there is a taker on our side, why are you the giver?”
The more than 900 delegates at the conference, including some 20 African leaders, and representatives from business giants such as Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Coca Cola and Chevron, gave him a standing ovation.
The main objective of the conference, according to organisers, was to “provide the private sector with an opportunity to dialogue with African heads of state and government” to enable investments in a new and transparent strategic partnership with both global business and the developed world.
The conference organisers had set up workshops to develop concrete proposals on areas in which Africa is woefully lacking including education, health, infrastructure and energy and other issues such as environment, access to developed markets and good governance.
The last is of primary importance as the developed world has repeatedly cited a lack of democracy and good administration in many African countries as a major impediment to investment.
Many delegates deplored the fact that the event was basically a talk-shop.
Ken Kweku, chief representative of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, a branch of the World Bank, said: “We have to stop talking and get acting. This has been a talk-shop.
“In summits like this, the action is not at the conference but at the bar, in corridors and over coffee. And I have seen no action,” Kweku said.
A member of the Saudi delegation echoed him, telling Wade: “I did not find a transactional mode. I did not find any ready projects.”
And Dele Jones, a Sierra Leonean business management consultant, said he had “wasted good time and money.
“It was only useful in that I made linkages with potential clients. But these potential clients were looking for potential deals which did not emerge and were not even identified.”
However, Fadah Hsieh, vice chairman from Taiwan’s state-run Council for Economic Planning and Development Executive Yuan, said it was unfair to expect the Dakar summit to end with a slew of projects.
“Nepad is young. This has been a very good start and a launching pad to seek funds from the private sector by giving people a very clear idea about Nepad. But results will take time.”
The Dakar summit is an important prelude to a Group of Eight (G8) summit in Canada in June.
Nepad will be on the agenda and Africa will be seeking strong financial backing for its development initiatives at the summit of seven leading industrialised countries and Russia. – AFP