Post Covid-19: UBA Africa Day panelists propose template for speedy recovery

BY EMEKA EJERE  

The second edition of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Africa Day conversations held on Monday, May 25, created an avenue for global leaders to brainstorm on how to return the African economy on the lane of prosperity after the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic, which first occurred in China and turned into a global disaster spreading across the whole world, poses a great danger to African countries that do not have proper and robust health infrastructure. The outbreak which was seen in Algeria for the first time Africa, has spread almost to the whole continent in a very short time.

As a result of the limited sharing of transparent information and the lack of some political tools, it is quite hard to figure out the extent of the pandemic’s effects on the continent. What is incontestable, however, is that the health crisis has taken a heavy toll on the continent’s economy following restrictive measure put in place governments to contain the spread.

At the UBA virtual conference moderated by the chairman, UBA Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu, the leaders emphasized, among other things, the need for meaningful collaborations between governments and the private sector as a panacea for the quick recovery of the economy of the African continent post Covid-19.

The virtual Leadership Panel was made up of the president of Liberia, George Weah; United States Senator, Chris Coons; the president & chairman of the board of directors of the African Export–Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK), Professor Benedict Oramah; president, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer.

Also part of the panel were the founder, Africa CEO Forum, Amir Ben Yahmed; the secretary-general of the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), George Chikoti; administrator, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Achim Steiner and Donald Kaberuka.

In his remarks, Elumelu, who is also the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, spoke on the need to mobilise everyone and explained the necessity of discovering a more fundamental solution to Africa’s challenges through collaborative efforts.

“This is the time for us to deal with the situation we have and also forge a better situation for everyone, acting again collectively,” he said. “This is not the time for finger pointing but for collaborative effort by governments and organizations to fight the pandemic globally.”

Stressing that all hands must be on deck if the African continent is to have a quick recovery from the pandemic, Elumelu said, “There is need to flatten the curve. We need global co-operation to stem global depression. Africa requires a large stimulus package, and we need long-term solutions to prevent a cycle of debt.”

In his submission, President George Weah, shared how collaborations worked in his government’s effort to mitigate the sufferings brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Weah said, “In Liberia we have taken measures to ease the financial burden on vulnerable businesses in the informal sector by providing small loan assistance to SMEs and traders. In addition, we are working with commercial banks to manage the repayment of loans as well as to create stimulus packages for citizens.”

On his part, US Senator, Chris Coons, said, “It is important to take a moment to look at how African leaders have reacted to the pandemic. In order for us to recover from this pandemic, we must develop a vaccine that is free and affordable and freely distributed so that full economic activities can return.

“There are ways we can invest in debt relief, invest in infrastructure and human development. This is no time to be looking backwards. We recognise the power of collective collaboration on the continent.”

Also speaking, Prof. Benedict Oramah, noted that the pandemic presents an opportunity for Africa to be independent and promote its growth and development as a people without external help, pointing out that COVID 19 has taught Africa that there comes a time when every group of people will fend for themselves.

While calling for the swift implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, Oramah said, “The priority of government should be to make sure that the AfCFTA gets implemented without delay. If there was any doubt about the importance of that agreement, this pandemic has told us that this is the way to go.”

The Afrexim boss, who maintained that the pandemic has shown so many weaknesses that Africa has across board, cautioned, “We know that hunger is looming if we do not do anything. If we allow hunger to take over from the COVID 19 pandemic, we will begin to see political problems and increase in insecurity, which will take a long time to overcome.

“For Africa the problems go beyond health challenges to other areas such as food supply. Hunger is looming and if action is not taken, Africa will see political problem. Africa has become the epicenter of the economic devastation that this pandemic has unleashed upon us.”

He disclosed that Afrexim has made available $200million to supply fertilizers and grains amongst others across Africa.

George Chikoti of ACP said that the huge task of economic recovery on the continent rests on both the government and the private sector. “The responsibility of COVID-19 does not rest on the government alone. The private sector needs to play a big role in lifting the burden of the pandemic. African governments need to accept the support of the private sector in alleviating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa,” he said.

“We have been able to release $25m to all member states. One of the major challenges is to make sure that in all countries, we have agricultural activity and high productivity. What we should learn from the impact of this pandemic is that the international community can look at how well they can fund all these initiatives that come from our countries.”

Achim Steiner of the UNDP noted that Digital connectivity is very essential as it is a crucial opportunity to connect all schools across the continent, adding that emphasis on healthcare is also very important.

Steiner said, “Digital connectivity is very crucial to connect schools to the internet. We need to address inequality; also, the virus has put a spotlight on Africa’s healthcare system. Africa needs to look at intermediate strategies like micro-insurance to ramp up this sector. Healthcare has the ability to make a large percentage of the population fall into extreme poverty.

“What we need to look at is to find a way for government as a regulator and also as an investor, to leverage private sector investment into these areas.”

Peter Maurer, president, ICRC, said there is the need to look at pandemics as part of a broader health system which needs stabilization, adding that a lot of vulnerable populations in Africa have been heavily infected by the pandemic. “We must do more than life-saving. This pandemic has illustrated the weakness of health, water, sanitation and social systems, and we have to heavily invest in the stabilization of these systems.

Explaining further, Maurer said, “Two things need to follow after live saving during the pandemic. First, the pandemic has illustrated the weak situation of health, water and food systems and we need to heavily invest both by the public and private sectors to stabilize the health sector. Secondly, investment has always gone into the more developed parts of Africa and not the fragile parts. We need Private Public Partnerships and investments by multi-corporate institutions to develop these areas.”

Amir Yahmed expressed hope that the crisis is going to be a super accelerator of already existing trends. “We have to get away from the commodity driven model which has failed in creating prosperity. Secondly, self-reliance should be one of the major objectives. The pandemic is a wake-up call for Africa – creating new streams of revenue and self-reliance by the African continent

“We need to use this crisis to take Africa to the next level. This crisis is going to be a super accelerator of already existing trends. I think it has to be a wake-up call for us to attain goals we haven’t reached and create new revenues for the economy.

We also need to attain self-reliance. Self-reliance is an important goal. Africa manufactures only 2% of what it produces. We need to use this crisis to take Africa to the next level, invest in digital infrastructure and digital education. Agriculture is another opportunity we need to grab. We need to get the AFCTA working.”

Donald Kaberuka on his part opined that “What we need (for this crisis) is something unusual, it is not business as usual. It is not marginal action, it is radical action.”

Incidentally, UBA as an organization is not being any less proactive and strategic in approach. The bank has invested significantly in cutting edge technology in a bid to boost its overall service offering to customers. The development is a further demonstration of the bank’s unalloyed commitment to ensuring premium services as well as reaffirming its dominance across Africa.

To reinforce its commitment to first-rate experience, the lender introduced numerous unique features on its mobile app and other digital platforms that set it apart, allowing customers carry out banking transactions seamlessly across all channels.

While unveiling the features during a recent online press conference, Samson Aneke, group head, Digital Banking at UBA, noted that the bank has taken steps ahead of its peers to navigate alternate banking channels in a bid to serve its customers better amid the Coronavirus pandemic and beyond, even as it braces for the challenges of the new normal as a result of the pandemic.

“What our customers will be getting now is an enhanced value that places us firmly ahead of our contemporaries in service delivery”, Aneke has assured.