Africa to set up three key financial institutions to boost industrialization

Shying away from foreign donors, Africa begins to find alternative sources to mobilize funds as it now moves to industrialize.

A top official at the African Union Commission (AUC) has hinted of concrete plans to set up three key financial institutions to fund Africa’s industrialization.

The AUC is seeking largely domestic financing to fund the industrial move on the continent. Dr. Rene Kouassi, AUC’s Director of Economic Affairs Division had earlier mooted for domestic financial institutions to lead in industrialization of Africa’s economy.

And at a press briefing March 22, 2013 on the sidelines of the 2013 Joint Annual Meetings of the AU and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Dr. Maxwell M. Mkwezalamba, the AU Commissioner for Economic Affairs, announced that there are plans to set up the African Investment Bank, the African Monetary Fund and the African Central Bank.

“With the establishment of these institutions, we will also have an impact on our attempts to promote industrialization,” Dr Mkwezalamba told journalists.

According to the AUC official, it has not been easy trying to set up these institutions but “I think some progress has been made”.

Dr Mkwezalamba said for instance, the statutes and protocols of the African Investment Bank has been adopted and what is “needed now is to get legal instruments ratified so that we can operationalise the bank.”

According to him, they are looking at the bank financing infrastructure which will contribute in accelerating regional market integration.

The African Monetary Fund will be loctated in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Dr Mkwezalamba indicated and it will be used to facilitate trade using it to “play the role of a clearing house”.

On the agenda for the Abidjan meeting, a draft statute of the African Monetary Fund is expected to be presented for approval.

By Ekow Quandzie in Abidjan, Ivory Coast