He said this Tuesday at the high-level Roundtable discussions made up of African leaders including Dr. Ngozi Okonjo – Iweala, the Special Envoy of the African Union on Covid-19 and Tidjane Thiam who is also a Covid-19 Special Envoy responsible for mobilising international economic support for Africa.

During the session titled ‘Resilient World: An African call for a new world order’, Elumelu stated “I see this pandemic as an opportunity to reset Africa.’ Whilst pointing out that Africa as a continent has all it takes to emerge into a strong digital economy, the UBA Group Chairman advocated a martial plan that will galvanise the entire continent and make Africa less dependent on the ‘circularity of debt’ from developed nations, which according to him, has been a major setback for decades.

He said, “I feel that as we engage the rest of the world in providing relief, we need to look for a more fundamental solution to Africa’s challenges. I have often argued for a martial plan overtime. We need to mobilise everyone. If we have a martial plan that mobilises resources to address particular issues, then we can mitigate against this constant begging for assistance.”

Explaining further, Elumelu pointedly said, “The truth is that we have resources to help mobilise people. As the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, we committed to endow $100m to support young African entrepreneurs and we have been seeing the positive results this has yielded so far. It is evident that if we can fix access to electricity, ensure stability of the macro-economic environment, ensure prioritisation of the youth, empower our small and medium scale enterprises and fix youth migration, then we are in for a better and more resilient economy’. “There is the urgent need to prioritise our youths and empower our SMEs. The people who work hard need to be encouraged,” Elumelu noted passionately.

Tidjane Thiam who supported what Elumelu had proposed, said that rather than depend on international assistance at every point, there is the need for governments and institutions to invest in activities that will prioritise the youths and create a better enabling environment.

“I totally agree with Tony Elumelu. The major challenge is that we do not see enough entrepreneurs. Similar to what obtains in Asia and Europe, there is the need to promote a class of Entrepreneurs to drive the African economy. We need to groom more Tony Elumelus’ from Africa’ he said. Tidjane continued, ‘We know what needs to be done. We need government and multinational institutions to bring in capital so that there will be investment in health, infrastructure and the like. We do need to get rid of this debt cycle because constant rescheduling and begging for relief for debts is not good for us as a continent,” Thiam said.

Okonjo-Iweala, on her part, called for a system where youths and women will be empowered to create and produce more to boost the African economy.

Whilst calling on private and government parastatals to engage in meaningful partnerships that will help to galvanise job creation and entrepreneurship among youths in Africa, she said, “As Tony pointed out, we can see this pandemic as an opportunity for the continent. We have the African Free Trade Agreement, and we have to make it real.

“We have to specialise our countries to manufacture the things we need so we can trade with others. We need to produce good jobs for our young people. We need to empower our women and youths and put them at the centre. It is said that Africa would have the largest number of youths in the world by 2050, so we need to fix this,” she noted.

The roundtable which was organised by the New York Forum Institute, also had in attendance African Heads of States including President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire, President Macky Sall of Senegal and President Julius Bio of Sierra Leone.

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Speaking at a panel discussion on the second day of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh, President Buhari underlined his government’s resolve to actualise his promise to reduce poverty in Nigeria.

The President joined President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya in a plenary session to discuss ‘‘What’s next for Africa? How will investment and trade transform the continent into the next great economic success story?’’

On poverty reduction in Nigeria, President Buhari pointed to the vigorous implementation of key reforms of his administration in the farming and agricultural sector including soft loans to farmers, availability and affordability of farming inputs and restrictions on food imports grown locally, as some measures that have encouraged agriculture revolution in Nigeria.

“We have vast arable land in Nigeria. We have encouraged, the young men and able-bodied persons, especially the uneducated ones to go back to the land.

“We have encouraged them by giving soft loans to farmers through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and by making fertilizer available and selling at half the prize that it used to be.

“We have also ensured a stop on the importation of food because we are capable of achieving food security ourselves,’’ he said.

Responding to a question posed to the discussants if Russia is now the new best friend of Africa, President Buhari said Russia is “visibly helping” Nigeria in all the priority areas of his government – security, economy and the fight against corruption-, for which he is grateful.

The President added that Russia had remained a committed development partner to Nigeria, recounting its support during the country’s civil war.

“Those who focus on the progress of developing countries would see what Russia right from its days as the Soviet Union had done for us. We will never forget that we went over our civil war with the help of Russia and since then politically and economically, the Russians are helping Nigeria in so many ways,’’ he said.

On anti-corruption, the Nigerian leader described corruption as an ‘‘embarrassing topic’’ for developing countries, highlighting measures by the Nigerian government to eliminate corruption through lawful enforcement and preventive measures.

“Those who are following our administration’s efforts on accountability at all levels will notice that we have made some progress.

“We have recovered hundred millions of dollars from people who took them out of the country and the economy.

“We have recovered assets and given directive that they should be sold and the money returned to government coffers.

“We have also created a Treasury Single Account (TSA) where all government monies and revenues go into a single account so that we can trace how they go out,’’ he said.

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The President is scheduled to participate in a plenary session on Wednesday in which President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville will discuss ‘‘What’s next for Africa? How will investment and trade transform the continent into the next great economic success story?’’

The session, at the annual investment forum to discuss trends in the world economy and investment environment, will provide an opportunity for the Nigerian leader to highlight the importance of public and private organisations to work together to grow economies that create a prosperous society for all.

He will also discuss what his government is doing to ensure that majority of Nigerian citizens have an acceptable standard of living.

Ahead of the interactive session with African leaders, President Buhari Tuesday attended a session in which His Majesty, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India delivered a special address.

The third annual conference is being attended by world leaders, as well as business leaders, innovators and policymakers from the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

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