{"id":40481,"date":"2019-12-09T11:53:52","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T11:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/together-we-can-build-the-africa-we-want\/"},"modified":"2019-12-11T15:23:08","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T15:23:08","slug":"together-we-can-build-the-africa-we-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/together-we-can-build-the-africa-we-want\/","title":{"rendered":"Together, we can build the Africa we want \u2013 President Kagame"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of state gave the advice as he responded to one of the participant\u2019s concern over what is required for other African countries to reach where Rwanda is now, during the inaugural \u2018Kusi Ideas Festival\u2019 taking place at Kigali Convention Center. <\/p>\n

He was speaking at a Presidential Panel alongside, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi, Moussa Faki Mahamat, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Raila, Raila Odinga, the Africa Union High Representative for Infrastructure Development and Vera Songwe, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.<\/p>\n

Kagame pointed out the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (ACFTA) as one of the ambitious strategies through which the continent can work to fast-track the development countries want to achieve in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing will happen unless Africans decide, which they have done. This is what was done here in Kigali when we met in 2016, seeing through the signing of the ACFTA,\u201d Kagame said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now have to keep challenging ourselves to make sure we do all the things we have committed ourselves to do\u201d <\/p>\n

While there is a lot of work to be done, Kagame said, the AfCFTA is a good foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy reassurance about the progress and success of the ACFTA and other things Africans have committed themselves to, lie in what pronouncements African leaders have made themselves and what we are seeing happening,\u201d he added.
\n\u201c\u201d
\nThe President had earlier met with members of the AU Reform Team, which he chairs, to review the progress. Among the key progress is the significant reduction of the African Union budget by 12 percent.<\/p>\n

By trimming the budget, the AU is aiming at being fit for purpose and drive towards financial self-reliance through the 0.2 per cent levy on eligible imports model. The budget serves to finance the cost of running the Union, its organs, specialized technical agencies, representational offices and agencies across the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re starting from a good place. What remains is to build on that to achieve many things. The purpose of reforms is mainly to have an effective African Union, one that is accountable to the people of Africa,\u201d he reminded the participants.<\/p>\n

The President highlighted that there is no question that if other countries have been able to work together to achieve the immense benefits they have achieved, nothing prevents Africa from being able to achieve the same results.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch as we are not where we need to be or want to be and we fully understand there is much work to do, I think we are up to the task. It\u2019s a question of working together,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

The panelists highlighted that education and investing in building infrastructure, are some of the prerequisites that will propel the continent to achieve the results it set out to achieve in the future.<\/p>\n

Tshisekedi said he was embarking on rolling out free education in his country.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I took that decision, we are overwhelmed by the high number of young people who are now able to go to school. This is how we shall change a nation that is in the midst of problems it wants to overcome,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Leaders are looking at DRC as one of the countries with great potential to drive the future of the continent. Projects like the proposed Grand Inga Dam were highlighted as one of the most transformative projects.<\/p>\n

Grand Inga is the world\u2019s largest hydropower scheme on the River Congo.<\/p>\n

In 2016, African heads of state and governments met in Kigali to sign the AFCTA. More than 40 leaders at the time signed the agreement for the establishment of a free trade agreement that will create the world\u2019s largest market.<\/p>\n

The African Continental Free Trade Area brings together all the 55-member countries of the African union to trade tariff-free.<\/p>\n

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President Paul Kagame observed that one of the aspects that will help in the development of the African continent is to have a mindset that augments good quality in all aspects of services and production instead of settling for cheap products and services, calling upon all African to play a part in realizing the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[2942],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-40481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-nicole-kamanzi-m"],"bylines":[{"id":2942,"name":"Nicole Kamanzi M.","slug":"nicole-kamanzi-m","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2942,"name":"Nicole Kamanzi M.","slug":"nicole-kamanzi-m","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40481"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=40481"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=40481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}