Africa: Leaders Call for Proper Exploitation of Natural Resources
By Michael Ouma
Addis Ababa-- The eighth session of the African Development Forum (ADF VIII) opened in Addis Ababa with the continent’s leaders pondering over tough and sometimes uncomfortable questions as regards to Africa’s natural resources vis-à-vis their exploitation; utilization overall benefits to the continent’s population.
In her opening remarks, the chair of African Union Commission (AUC) Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma noted that the importance of natural resources to Africa’s history and future can not be over-emphasized, adding that the ADF should address the challenges that Africa faces today with respect to the utilization and management of its natural resources.
“You must address such issues as the ownership of these resources. Yes, the resources are physically located on our continent – but do we really own them? What should be the right balance between foreign and national ownership of resources and how do we get there,” posed Dr Dlamini-Zuma, adding that the other question to be that needs answers is about how much of the resources should be given away and how much should be kept for Africa’s future needs.
The AUC boss said that in most African countries, the natural resources “are simply being extracted” and not processed, meaning that these countries are thereby denied the benefits of value addition and higher returns for the resources and industrialization of the economy.
The three-day meeting, whose theme is “Governing and harnessing Natural Resources for Africa’s Development,” has speakers share their insights on new development and thinking, as well as initiatives based on natural resource management activities carried out by the three co-organizing institutions, the African Union Commission, the Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank.
The executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission of Africa (UNECA), Mr Carlos Lopes said that even though seven out of the ten fastest growing economies in the world are from Africa, “we have six out of the ten most unequal societies in the world.”
“Our challenge is much more than scaling up current good performance. It is also to take into account the interests of the most vulnerable and the way we use the abundant continental endowment in natural resources will be critical in this regard,” said Lopes, that the continent’s policy makers need to improve the processes for accessing and extracting mineral resources in a way that tackles poverty and promotes inter-generational equity.
The debate about Africa’s natural resources, their exploitation and eventual benefit to the continent is in recognition of the continent’s natural resource endowment. The continent accounts for three-quarters of the world’s platinum supply as well as half of its diamonds and chromium.
The continent also has up to one-fifth of gold and uranium supplies while over thirty of the continent’ over fifty countries have discovered oil and gas deposits.
“In spite of these resources, Africa does not consume or add significant value to these and other mineral products which it has in abundance. Rather, we are net exporters of raw materials that fuel prosperity and development in other regions,” said Lopes, adding that Africa also has 60 per cent of world’s uncultivated arable land.
“Given these vast endowments, the question that arises is why our continent continues to struggle with limited economic transformation and scarce employment as certainly, it is not due to lack of exploitation”, noted the UNECA boss, adding that mineral resources continue to attract high levels of foreign direct investment, accounting for the highest share of economic activity in four out of every five African countries.
To help address the issue of lack of transparency and accountability from both government and private sector as regards the exploitation of the continent’s natural resources, policy makers have formulated various blue-prints – including the African Mining Vision and Land Policy Initiative (LPI) – which if well implemented can lead to an all-inclusive growth and economic transformation.
“We have to shift focus from the short-term and limited financial benefits to long-term development options. This is a joint responsibility of government’s, private sector, civil society organizations as well as ordinary citizens, shareholders and workers,” said Mr Lopes.
The other initiative established to help correct the situation is the African Minerals Development Centre, in which the Australian government has committed a $ 5 million over the two years to help implement the African Mining Vision which aims to drive sustainable mining, increase transparency around major projects and support infrastructure as well as develop new capacity.
All these initiatives are crucial to ensure that the continent derives maximum benefits from its abundant natural resources because as Dr Dlamini-Zuma noted, “Africa’s future will be defined by the manner in which we utilise our natural resources.”