Elumelu Seeks ‘Reimagined’ US Relationship with Africa

The Group Chairman, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc and Founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation, Mr. Tony O. Elumelu, has called for a ‘reimagined’ U.S. relationship with Africa, stressing that a strong private sector is critical for peace and development in the continent. He also said that Washington needs to shift its focus from aid that inevitably encourages dependency to support for institutions that help empower a burgeoning population through businesses and the jobs

Elumelu who said this during the Fireside Chat hosted by the U.S. Institute of Peace and The Heritage Foundation in Washington DC recently, explained that young people who are engaged in bettering their own lives and their communities will reject the lures of extremism and crime.

“Entrepreneurship, peace and conflict are linked one way or the other”, Elumelu said, while calling for a ‘reimagined’ US relationship with Africa in the pursuit of a viable private sector through youth empowerment.

Asked what the United States can do to improve Africa’s governance, Elumelu replied that “people are beginning to wonder if the U.S. is still there for Africa because of the foray into Africa by other world powers.”

Yet America remains admired and respected, he said. According to him, a critical step would be to make sure aid makes it past the “last mile” to its intended recipients and purposes; another would be supporting institutional infrastructure that helps address sustainability; and U.S. policymakers and financial institutions should impress on African leaders how their own political goals and private sector success are linked.

Overall, there needs to be a “reimagining of what Africa needs” — a necessity demonstrated by a dangerous level of youth unemployment that is not improving, Elumelu said, adding that the recent string of coups across Africa should serve as a “wakeup call” for the urgency of addressing the social and economic conditions that lead to political instability.

Across Africa, governments often see the private sector as a competitor, which abets instability, he said. Leaders must understand that only the private sector — particularly small and medium-scale enterprises — can catalyze economic growth by creating jobs. At the same time, the “enabling environment” of government-involved infrastructure demands massive investment. Investors, however, are reluctant to finance or build projects in countries plagued by theft, insecurity and corruption, he said, so a “mighty private sector” will place increased demands on political leaders to improve their countries’ governance.

“The private sector makes innumerable contributions to securing peace,” Lise Grande, USIP’s president and CEO, said in introducing Elumelu. It provides jobs and economic opportunities, promotes education, advances institutions that protect the rule of law, and helps to address the social pressures that lead to extremism and democratic backsliding, Grande said.

“Those pressures include soaring population, observed the Heritage Foundation’s Joshua Meservey: 60 percent of Africans are younger than 25 and by 2035 the continent’s working class will likely be larger than China’s or India’s.

a“By necessity, peace and security are in a symbiotic and simultaneous relationship with greater economic growth and investment,” Dana Banks, the US National Security Council’s senior director for Africa, who appeared with Elumelu, added later.