Rwanda’s Prime Minister Dr. Édouard Ngirente on Friday officiated at the closing ceremony of the 2nd Annual General Meeting of the Africa Sovereign Investors Forum held in Kigali.
The Forum July 6 to 7 is aimed at fostering cooperation and development among African sovereign wealth funds.
According to orgnaisers, the major focus of the gathering was aimed at evaluating challenges and exploring development opportunities across all sectors of the African economy.
Across the continent there are almost 30 sovereign wealth funds, with a combined worth of U$100 billion.
“We need to discuss strategies to enhance the competitiveness of Africa’s investment landscape and strengthen our economies’ capacity to effectively address the current challenges we face,” Eric Rwigamba, Minister of Public Investments and Privatization told the forum.
According to him the contintent lag in global trade is attributed to; market fragmentation, over reliance on natural resource exports, insufficient export diversification, low integration levels, infrastructure deficit and other local challenges in respecive countries.
During the conference on Day one, Rwigamba noted that there was a need for participants to discuss strategies to enhance the competitiveness of Africa’s investment landscape and strengthen economies’ capacity to effectively address the current challenges the continent faces.
Meanwhile, Obaïd Amrane, Chairman of ASIF told the forum that Africa should not solely focus on investor interests or capital availability but should create favourable conditions and projects that encourage investors to commit capital.
“Our objective is to direct investments toward the continent’s priorities and generate intergenerational wealth,” he told participants.
