Food Basket |
WAS recently
impressed when Nigerian business leader Aliko Dangote dominated the
world on Wednesday, after various media outlets quoted him after he had
addressed a meeting in New York.
Dangote repeated
the following word before a group of investors "Agriculture,
agriculture, agriculture. Africa will become the food basket of the
world soon", he said amid applause from African leaders.
The packed meeting
room at the headquarters of global law firm Shearman and Sterling LLC
high level business leaders and international diplomats remained silent,
as delegates followed the discourse quietly.
This businessman
who operates a cement factory in Mtwara was invited by the Corporate
Council for Africa alongside Rwandan president Paul Kagame who openly
conversed on Africa's opportunities and challenges.
It was really
impressing to observe that both leaders underscored the ongoing movement
to diversify African economies.In the case of Nigeria, Africa's largest
economy, Dangote stated "We should pray that oil prices remain low.
This helps wean us
off the dependency on revenues from petroleum. We must take oil to be
the icing on the cake. We already have the cake," he added.
In addition to
agriculture Dangote cited Nigeria's vast mineral resources and gas, as
well and the need to manufacture more goods locally for domestic
consumption, just like our own president John Magufuli has been
insisting now and then. I was impressed to note that both Dangote and
President Kagame were citing continued need for heavy investments in
education and connected the need for young people to be well trained for
the jobs of tomorrow.
Look at what I saw
Dangote predicting "Five of the twelve million jobs needed in Africa
soon must be created in Nigeria" and I said to myself - this is the
point that Tanzanian business community should also look at seriously,
if we need to improve our people's lives. As some of us know, Dangote's
fortune which stem from cement, sugar, and other household commodities
has expanded into fertilizer and other processed high-value goods.
At any for a when
given time, Dangote usually utter the following words "Technology helps
us a lot, and our factories are state of the art with the use of
robotics but we shouldn't be overly tech oriented to create wealth".
Dangote who is
often cited as one of the most inspiring business leaders in the world
today and a model for young entrepreneurs offered advice to Americans
who tend to rely on outdated news and wrong perceptions of Africa.
This is what he
told them "Don't be lazy. Go to Africa and find the real story for
yourself. Things have changed". He noted the Rwanda success story where
he has business interests as an example of positive change, good
governance and leadership, and where corruption has been cured.
He also cited a
personal experience of offering a 100 US dollar tip for services at the
Kigali Airport to staff who refused to take money for work they were
paid to do. President Kagame was praised for delivering the environment
for growth he promised insisting that there was nothing African about
corruption.
It was a good
coincidence that the session was moderated by Rosa Whitaker, former US
Trade Representative and author of the AGOA (African Growth Opportunity
Act), whose business consultancy is credited for helping both African
governments and US companies develop commerce.
There was another
meeting in New York around that time, where the US president Donald
Trump told African leaders that their continent has tremendous business
potential.
"So many friends go
to your countries to get rich" Trump said when he hosted a lunch with
African Heads of State at the United Nations General Assembly in New
York.
According to Trump,
Africa has tremendous business potential which represents huge amounts
of different markets. I recently read the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) report which showed that the government of Tanzania
was intending to use agricultural development as the main engine towards
reaching middle level income status for the country by 2025.
To support Tanzania
achieve that target, said the report, three priority areas were
mentioned, which were - promoting agriculture as a profitable business,
increasing agriculture productivity in selected agricultural commodities
and engaging smallholder farmers and traders successfully in marketing
and commercialization of agricultural produce.
I think if Tanzania
can have sustainable management of natural resources, proper management
of natural resources and a proper agricultural development planning,
the country can export food crops.
The country should
also have availability and effective use of reliable, accurate and
up-to-date agricultural statistics that reflect food and nutrition
security situation. That should be coupled with effective and
efficiently coordinated agricultural sector development planning and
sector investment support.
FAO 2016 reports
show that agriculture is important to the economy in Tanzania as it
provides 30 percent of GDP, 80 percent of employment and contributes 85
percent of export earnings annually.
With a mix of
plantation and smallholder crops like coffee, pyrethrum, sisal, and
cotton, the majority smallholders can grow food crops for domestic
consumption, with surpluses feeding the towns.
Since growth in
agriculture has risen of the order 6 - 7 percent annually in recent
years as FAO says, the country can can be self sufficient in food and
also export the surplus.
Increased
productivity can enable the country help about 40 percent of those
employed who currently live below the national poverty line.
This clearly
indicates low productivity and considerable decent work deficits such as
underemployment and working poverty. The majority of agro-producers
have remained poorly informed of opportunities in regional and
international markets.
Tanzania still
needs some frameworks to promote investment and also improve the role of
its private sector, and if such things are done well on time, we shall
definitely reach where Dangote intends us to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment