Reform regional economic blocs – Agambire tells African govts

The Chairman of AGAMS Holdings, Roland Agambire has urged the African Union to adopt what termed urgent proactive measures to ensure that all the regional economic groupings are reformed and strategically positioned to address the numerous socio-economic challenges facing Africans, particularly, the business community on the continent.

He said given the strong desire expressed by the continent's youth to thread the path of growth and development, such an intervention by the regional economic groupings will also facilitate easy access to capital, investment and patronage of goods and services.

Mr Agambire was addressing the just-ended Africa World Business Forum in Dubai.

He was one of four panelists who discussed the topic: “Africa's young future: how Africa's young entrepreneurs are starting to drive its economic future; the view of the up and coming young entrepreneurs and business people in Africa”.

The forum was organized by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA).

It was on the theme “Dubai-COMESA: bridging the continent to the world” and was attended by 3,000 delegates across the globe.

Mr Agambire who is also the Chief Executive of Rlg Communications said given the current schemes of things, Africa's regional economic groupings such as ECOWAS, SADC, COMESA, EAC and ECCAS cannot continue “same way, same pace”

“It is only when we have put in place measures we can call adequate but youth have failed to take advantage of it that we can go on to blame them for being lazy and unproductive. I will even suggest legislations in all our countries to compel every young person to do something productive. That may be harsh, but Africa can no longer wait”.

Delegates were particularly thrilled by the intentions of Mr Agambire to create jobs for 1 million youth in the next five years.

“ Already in our Assembly Plant in Ghana, a significant number of young people constitute our essential personnel and through our ICT Module training and the Enterprise Project combined, more than 50,000 youth are in economically viable ventures, earning a means to fend themselves, their families and their communities”, he told the session to a thunderous applause from the delegates.

Among the key delegates were the celebrated former President of Botswana, Sudanese billionaire, MO Ibrahim; Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiza, Ghana's Foreign Minister, Hannah Tetteh and an array of political, diplomatic and investor communities.

Mr Agambire challenged African governments to see entrepreneurship as the driving force for development and offer it the needed support.

He said many African countries, including Ghana which prides itself as the gateway to Africa, can learn a lot from Dubai which is undoubtedly the hub of globalization.

Uganda's Minister for Trade, Industry and Co-operatives, Amelia Kyambadde who moderated the session, lauded the contribution of young entrepreneurs saying the future is now for young people.

She expressed the hope that the platform created for the four young people will transform lives in many places on the continent.

The other three panelists were the Founder & Managing Director Partner of Hoja Law Group of Zambia, Jacqueline Musiitwa; Founder & Executive Director of the Kenya-based Sustainable Development for All-Africa, Evans Wadongo and the Chief Executive Officer of Tanzania's Helvetic Solar Contractors, Patrick Ngowi.

The Africa Global Business Forum 2013 offered a platform to over 3,000 policy-makers and global business leaders from Africa, the GCC, Asia and Europe and beyond to discuss current challenges and business opportunities in finance, agribusiness, logistics, and trade across the economic blocs of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC), the South African Development Community (SADC), the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) and the African Union (AU).