The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
DAY 2 Wednesday #AfricaNow19
Key speakers
9am ➡Eng. Amr Nassar 🇪🇬
12pm ➡ Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦
2.45pm➡High Level Panel
4pm ➡ Pres A.Mohamed 🇸🇴
5pm ➡ Pres Museveni 🇺🇬
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Museveni has said Africa has all it takes to be the engine of the World economy provided its leaders are transformational and solve several bottlenecks holding the continent back.
Speaking at the Africa Now conference, organised by think tank Africa Strategic Leadership Centre at Munyonyo, Kampala in Uganda today, Museveni said leaders need to focus on transformation; not just increasing quantitatively, but also assuming a higher quality.
He said that apart from education and the liberalization that frees the private sector to be active and innovative, the continent needs other enablers to remove what he categorized as 10 strategic bottlenecks.
This week’s Africa Now Summit 2019 at the Commonwealth Hotel in Munyonyo is set to create a space where Africans can direct the conversation about the continent’s past, status quo and its future through mainstream platforms.
The conference Tuesday March 12th and Wednesday 13th, is organized by the Africa Strategic Leadership Centre and aims to harness the interminable energy of the African youth in forging a secure, integrated and growing Africa.
The bottlenecks
“By addressing the issues of education and health as well as the issue of the freedom of the private sector in its efforts to create wealth and jobs, we would have removed 2 strategic bottlenecks,” he said as he gave a paper on The leadership needed to catalyse africa’s transformation.
The eight remaining strategic bottlenecks he identified are ideological disorientation; lack of infrastructure; a narrow internal market; the under development of agriculture ; the under development of services such as tourism, insurance or hotels; and, in some cases, absence of democracy.
“Awareness of the issues raised above is very crucial for Africa’s transformation. Addressing the above issues will enable us to create prosperity for our people. How? By our producers generating alot of goods and service products that find a ready market,” he explained.
“The more we sell, the more we produce. The more we produce, the more jobs we create and the wider the tax base. The more taxes we collect, the better social services the African governments will provide. Today, the African population is 1.25bn with a purchasing power of US$6.757 trillion.
He concluded by saying that by 2050 Africa’s population will be 2.5bn.
“Uganda alone will be 102 million people. With much bigger purchasing power, Africa will be the engine of the World economy provided we solve the bottlenecks.”
This High- Level meeting, co- chaired by Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is set to capture a diversity of ideas and views of the participants through presentations, interactive plenary sessions and sideline meetings that reflect the key thematic areas of conference. These sessions will be moderated by the likes of BBC’S Allan Kasujja, Professor Eddy Maloka – CEO APRM Secretariat, Irene Ikomu –a Ugandan Lawyer & Strategy Consultant, Ambassador Adonia Ayebare, Representative to Uganda Mission to the United Nations, Her Excellency Rosa Malango – Coordinator One UN, Uganda and Dr. Nansonzi Muwanga – Member, Board of Directors Africa Strategic Leadership Centre.
FULL SPEECH
President’s Speech at AFRICA NOW 2019 by The Independent Magazine on Scribd
