Liberia’s former Deputy Foreign Minister, Elias Shoniyin, has addressed the African Economic Summit, urging “Deliberate Actions” to Tackle Inadequate Infrastructure, and Leveraging Regional Customs Unions on the African Continent.
Addressing a two-day summit in Accra, Ghana, Mr. Shoniyin implored African leaders to work intentionally and take advantage of globalization as it is being demonstrated by many Southeastern Asian countries, including Singapore, South Korea, China, and others.
He pointed out that to do this, Africans must think beyond their own countries, and must-see Africa as borderless, an approach, according to him, which would punctuate the new African Renaissance.
Mr. Shoniyin said for the last forty years, African markets have continued to be chiefly commodities-based, thereby trading in primary resources which are exported to Europe, North America, and now, China, where they are processed, creating jobs and opportunities for people in those countries, while the people of Africa embellish in extreme and multi-dimensional poverty and destitution.
The Former Deputy Foreign Minister, now Dean of the graduate School of Global Affairs and Policy at Cuttington University, Liberia, told the 2023 African Economic Summit that a significant challenge for inter-country trade in Africa is the lack of adequate infrastructure and limited knowledge of the unparalleled possibilities in clustering markets into a borderless and expanded market sizes in several countries.
He, however, lauded the establishment of regional economic blocs, most of which have created an economy of scales regionally, clustering small markets into single but larger ones.
The Africa Economic Summit is a global community of experienced business leaders and professionals deeply committed to achieving sustainable economic development in Africa.
The summit connects experts, investors, and the AfricanDiasporas with innovators and entrepreneurs on the continent to build durable solutions for Africa and the World.
