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  • U.S. congratulates Pope Francis on 5th anniversary

    The U.S. has congratulated Pope Francis on the fifth anniversary of his election to the See in Rome.

    U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a statement, commended the cordial relations between the U.S. and Rome.

    “On behalf of the U. S. Government, I offer my congratulations to His Holiness Pope Francis on the fifth anniversary of his election to the See of Rome.

    “Together, the U. S. and the Holy See are an extraordinary force for good as we work to advance religious freedom and human rights.

    “And fight terrorism and violence, combat human trafficking, prevent the spread of diseases, and seek peaceful solutions to crises around the world,” he said.

    Tillerson said President Donald Trump’s historic meeting with Pope Francis on his first foreign trip in May 2017 underscored the importance of this partnership.

    “I join millions of Americans in congratulating the Holy Father on this anniversary and look forward to our continued work together to promote peace, freedom, and human dignity around the world,” Tillerson said.

    Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on Feb. 28, 2013, a papal conclave elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio as his successor on March 13.

    Read Also: Pope Francis prays for peace in Nigeria

     He chose Francis as his papal name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi.

    He is the 266th and current Pope of the Catholic Church, a title he holds ex officio as Bishop of Rome, and sovereign of Vatican City.

    Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere.

    He is also the first pope from outside Europe since the Syrian Gregory III, who reigned in the eighth century.

  • Video: U.S. to back 110 Dapchi girls’ rescue

    The United States yesterday promised to support the battle to rescue the 110 schoolgirls abducted by a faction of Boko Haram in Dapchi, Yobe State.

    Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who visited Nigeria as part of his week-long tour of Africa, stated this during a joint news conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs Geofrey Onyeama at the Presidential Vila.

    He met with President Buhari and had another session with Onyeama.

    Explaining the form of support they would give, Tillerson said: “First, we respect the responsibilities of the government of Nigeria and the territorial integrity of Nigeria. But the way we support is in providing them capacity with equipment and also training of the personnel of special operations and sharing intelligence to ensure that they have all the information available to carry out the recovery effort.

    “But I think it is also important to put this in a broad regional context as well, Boko Haram is a threat to other region and this has been the subject of my meetings elsewhere and in Africa as well.

    “In my discussion with President Derby in Chad earlier today (yesterday), we spoke about the threat of Boko Haram, it’s really been powerful, the collaboration between the joint task force which Nigeria is a part and Chad is a part, to respond to this threat of terrorism. Boko Haram is one of the threats that the leadership of this country has to deal with.

    “So the United States is ready to engage and coordinate efforts as well. We hope that something can be worked out and they can secure the release of these girls quickly.” During their meeting, President Buhari said Nigeria was being careful hence the government decided to choose negotiation rather than military option.

    The President said Nigeria preferred to have the schoolgirls abducted from Chibok and Dapchi back alive.

    A statement by Special Adviser on Media and publicity, Femi Adesina, quoted the President as saying that Nigeria was working in concert with international organizations and negotiators, to ensure that the girls were released unharmed by their captors.

    “We are trying to be careful. It is better to get our daughters back alive,” the President said.

    He thanked the U.S. for the assistance rendered in the fight against insurgency, noting that Nigerian forces are good, “but need assistance in the areas of training and equipment.”

    The President promised that his administration would continue to do its best to secure the country, adding that he would be in Yobe State, from where Dapchi schoolgirls were abducted, later this week “as part of my condolence and sympathy visits to areas where we have had unfortunate events.”

    He pledged free and fair polls in 2019 and recalled that the then American Secretary of State, John Kerry visited the country before the 2015 polls, “and he told the party in government then, and those of us in opposition, to behave ourselves, and we did.”

    Tilerson commended President Buhari on his strides in the anti-corruption war, to which the Nigerian leader responded that moneys recovered were being invested on development of infrastructure.

    Mr Tillerson said Nigeria was a very important country to the U.S. “You have our support in your challenges. We will also support opportunities to expand the economy, commercial investments, and peaceful polls in 2019

     

    Speaking further at the news conference, Tillerson said he warned African countries against Chinese loans not because he was seeking to stop Chinese investments from flowing to countries that need those investments,  “but what we are cautioning countries about is to look carefully, that the implications of the level of debts, the terms of the debts, and whether the arrangements around the local financing are in fact creating jobs, local capacity or the projects being carried out by foreign labour being brought to your country, is the structure of the financing such that you will always be in control of your infrastructure?

    “Are there mechanism to deal with the faults so that you do not lose ownership of your own assets? These are national assets whether there are ports, railways, or major highways.

    “We have seen this occurred in other countries that were not so careful and they got themselves in situation where they awfully  lost control of their infrastructure, lost the ownership.”

    https://soundcloud.com/thenationnewspaper/sets/us-pledges-special-operations-for-safe-return-of-dapchi-girls-others

    Onyeama insisted that Boko haram had been degraded. “We don’t by any way strength of imagination minimize those but it’s really a different kind of warfare as it is and the government is sparing no effort in addressing that. But it is a different challenge that requires intelligence and also understanding the environment that these kind of unlimited support for Boko Haram indoctrination of young children.

    “But as far as military classical threat, we have certainly degraded the capacity of Boko Haram to beat a classical retreat.”

    He faulted the claim that it took the government a week to acknowledge the Dapchi girls’ abduction.

    He said ” It is incorrect to say we took a week to acknowledge. It was acknowledged immediately everything was being done and we were strategizing.

  • U.S, China and Africa: Issues in Tillerson’s visit

    Before his departure on his current five-nation African tour, U.S Secretary of State, Mr. Rex Tillerson delivered a lecture at George Mason University, Virginia on the outline of the vision and issues of Africa-U.S cooperation. Among many other issues, he grudgingly admitted that “Chinese investment does have the potential to address Africa’s infrastructure gap” but added a curious caveat that “its (China) approach has led to mounting debt and few, if any jobs in most countries”.

    Not only does this fly in the face of reality, it leaves one wondering if Tillerson was adequately or properly briefed on issues of China-Africa cooperation.

    Last year, in June 2017, a prestigious U.S –based global management consulting firm, Mckinsey & Co issued a report of its elaborate filed research on China/Africa with a title of Dance of the Lion and dragons: How are Africa and China emerging, and how will the partnership evolve? On page 40 of the highly rated report, it observed that “a walk through China factory or construction site almost anywhere in Africa will confirm what our research finds,” that “Chinese enterprises overwhelming employ local workers. At the more than 1,000 companies we surveyed, 89 percent employees were African, adding up to more than 300, 000 jobs for African workers. Scaled up across the more than 10,000 Chinese firms in Africa, these numbers suggest that Chinese-owned business employ several million Africans.”

    Continuing, the report said “private companies and SOEs across industries in the eight countries we studied had majority-local workers. In trade, for example, the workforce is 82 percent African, in manufacturing, it is 95 percent African, and comparing public and private enterprises, SOEs employ an 81 percent African workforce, and private enterprises employ a 92 percent African workforce.” According to Mckinsey & Co, “the reason for the bias toward local labour is not hard to understand; employing Africans lead to lower overall cost” and referring to one Chinese construction company supervisor it interviewed, the report quoted as saying that “even though Chinese workers tend to be more productive, it is now five times more expensive to bring a Chinese worker to Africa than it is to hire locally.”

    This report of a foremost and prestigious American consulting management firm would not have escaped the attention of the meticulous and intelligent U.S Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, and his horde of advisers in the U.S state department. For why Tillerson chooses to disparage facts in favour of ideological hankerings is best known to the former oilman who is not at all, a stranger to Africa in his “former life,” as he put it at the George Mason University speech, hawking outright lies and slander to tarnish China-Africa cooperation is not new and hardly makes any impression in Africa.

    In 1991, a former U.S Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights in a New York Times report accused China of using convict labour in the Republic of Benin and later it was picked up by the British Daily Mail report in 2008. Without any foundation in fact, the report was a sheer fabrication and evidently did not to harm soaring China-Africa relations.

    As Secretary of State, Tillerson pointed out, U.S-Africa relations is longstanding and has been buoyed by former President Jimmy Carter visits to Liberia and Nigeria in 1978 where he announced that “our nation has now turned in an unprecedented way toward Africa”. And in contemporary times, according to Secretary Tillerson, “that turning continues” as “our country’s security and economic prosperity are linked with Africa’s like never before,” and “will only intensify in the coming decades.”

    As he sees it, Africa by the year, 2030, will represent about one-quarter of the world’s workforce. And by the year 2050, the population of the continent is expected to double to more than 2.5 billion people – with 70% of them under the age of 30.” And secondly, according to him, Africa is experiencing significant growth. The World Bank estimates that six of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world this year will be African,” and narrowing to down to Nigeria, Mr Rex Tillerson said that “for context, by the year 2050, Nigeria will have a population larger than the United States and an economy larger than Australia’s” and added that “to understand where the world is going, one must understand that Africa is a significant part of the future. African countries will factor more and more into numerous global security and development challenges, as well as expansive opportunities for economic growth and influence.”

    With such robust view and understanding of the strategic potential of Africa, the United States of America whose state department or foreign ministry created its Africa Bureau in 1958, should readily mean business by engaging Africa more productively than into a battle-ground for ideological contestations by the unsolicited and false alarm of so-called China’s “predatory practices”. As former Head of State, Murtala Muhammed affirmed in 1976 that “Africa has come of age, and it’s no longer under the orbit of any extra continent power,” in response to the earlier letter of the U.S President, Gerald Ford on how Africa should steer clear of the former USSR and Cuba influence on the matter of then, Angolan independence. The Nigerian leader warned then, that “for too long has it been presumed that the Africa needs outside “experts” to tell him who are his friends and who are his enemies,” and affirmed that “the time has come when we should make it clear that we can decide for our self, that we know our own interests and how to protect those interests; that we are capable of resolving African problems without presumptuous lessons in ideological dangers, which, more often than not have no relevance for us, nor for the problem at hand.”

    Tillerson’s current anti-China rhetoric is more likely to meet the same fate as former President Gerald Ford’s in 1976. The fact is that Africa is open to partnership with any country or region in the world that shows respect to her.

    China-Africa relations is not perfect but is working and delivering tangible results. It is a work in progress and has established a mechanism for routine consultations and dialogue. Through the mechanism of dialogue and consultation, instituted in the Forum on China-African Cooperation (FOCAC), both sides express their concerns and work through consultation and consensus to drive a process of mutual benefits and win-win cooperation.

    China has also offered another meaningful platform and mechanism, the Belt and Road International Cooperation to engage global development and build a community of shared future for all mankind. The United States with her numerous advantages of a lone super-power, can leverage the Belt and Road mechanism to deepen her engagement to the core global developmental issues which are of concern to Africa, but whose neglect are the reasons for the security concerns which Washington seems perennially obsessed.

    On the occasion of the U.S Secretary of State visit to Africa, Washington should burnish its solid Africa credentials after all, it has a sizeable population of Africa-origin and engage more usefully in sectors that are mutually productive and meaningful to both sides.

    China has consistently said it is keen to engage other interested international partners in Africa and therefore, the U.S does not need to revive the outdated Cold War rhetoric about China in Africa but to engage in a framework that brings about mutual benefits to all parties.

     

    • Onunaiju is Director, Centre for China Studies, CCS, Utako, Abuja.

     

  • U.S. offers $5m bounty for Pakistani Taliban chief

    U.S. offers $5m bounty for Pakistani Taliban chief

    The U.S. State Department is offering a five-million-dollar reward for information leading to Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah.

    The U.S. also announced a three-million-dollar reward each for two other senior leaders of militias linked to the Pakistani Taliban.

    The move is seen as another attempt by Washington to defuse tensions with the Pakistani government.

    The State Department then said it would freeze almost all U.S. security assistance to the country.

    Pakistani political and military leaders have been demanding that international and Afghan security forces take tougher action against Fazlullah’s group, which is currently based in Afghanistan.

    The reward offers, announced on Thursday, come after a suspected U.S. drone strike killed no fewer than 21 would-be suicide bombers, including a son of Fazlullah, at a training camp in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province.

    Fazlullah rose to prominence when he ordered the attack on the world’s youngest Noble Laureate, Malala Yousafzai, in 2012.

    He was elevated to lead the Pakistani Taliban in 2013 after the death of his predecessor Hakimullah Mehsud in a U.S. drone strike.

    The reward for Abdul Wali, alias Omer Khorasani, the leader of Jamaat ul Ahrar faction of the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam group chief Mangal Bagh was also announced in the statement on Thursday.

    On Thursday, 20 militants were believed to have been killed in an American drone strike on a compound said to have been used by Fazlullah.

    The strike was carried out in a remote area of Kunar province in Afghanistan and the dead are believed to include the leader’s son and senior commanders.

    One of them, Qari Yaseen, is believed to have trained suicide bombers.

    The U.S. did not comment but Pakistani officials claimed that the strike was helped by intelligence from Islamabad.

    The incident comes amid fraught relations with the U. S. as President Trump piles pressure on Islamabad to act against terrorist havens within its borders.

    dpa/NAN

  • U.S. announces $533m for Nigeria, others

    U.S. announces $533m for Nigeria, others

    The U.S. has announced about 533 million dollars in humanitarian assistance for Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Sudan, as well as countries in the Lake Chad region.

    U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said millions of people were facing life-threatening food insecurity and malnutrition as a result of ongoing conflict or prolonged drought in the countries.

    Of the newly announced funds, more than $128 million is for affected populations from Nigeria and countries in the Lake Chad region.

    About $184 million is for affected populations from South Sudan and more than $110 million for affected populations from Ethiopia.

    The humanitarian assistance includes more than $110 million for affected populations from Somalia.

    Tillerson said: “today I’m announcing $533 million in additional humanitarian assistance to fight famine and food insecurity and address other needs resulting from conflicts in Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Lake Chad Basin.

    “The alarming levels of hunger in these areas are largely man-made, as conflicts erupt and people flee their homes.

    “Under these conditions, people cannot produce crops and often lose access altogether to food, education, and health care. Many lose everything.

    “And regrettably, Mother Nature can still be cruel, such as in the Horn of Africa, where a prolonged drought is contributing to grave food insecurity”.

    According to him, these additional funds will provide emergency food, nutrition assistance, and other aid.

    This includes safe drinking water, thousands of tons of food, and deliver health programs to prevent the spread of deadly diseases like cholera to millions of people, he said adding “This will save lives”.

    “The American people, as we always have been, are there to partner with African countries to ensure their most vulnerable populations receive life-saving assistance.

    “We also call upon others to join us in meeting the growing humanitarian needs in Africa. We hope these initial contributions will encourage others to contribute aid to increase burden sharing and meet the growing humanitarian needs in Africa.

    “However, this assistance will not solve these ongoing conflicts, but only buy us time – time to pursue diplomatic solutions,” Tillerson stressed.

    According to him, ultimately it is up to the leaders in these countries, particularly in South Sudan, to stop the violence and put the welfare of their citizens at the forefront of their actions.

    He said millions would continue to be at risk as long as parties to these conflicts continue to engage in violence, calling on all parties to allow aid workers safe and unhindered access to help communities in need.

    The U.S. is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance for these crises in Africa, providing nearly three billion dollars since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2017.

    NAN

  • U.S. announces $533m for Nigeria, others

    U.S. announces $533m for Nigeria, others

    The U.S. has announced about 533 million dollars in humanitarian assistance for Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Sudan, as well as countries in the Lake Chad region.

    U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said millions of people were facing life-threatening food insecurity and malnutrition as a result of ongoing conflict or prolonged drought in the countries.

    Of the newly announced funds, more than $128 million is for affected populations from Nigeria and countries in the Lake Chad region.

    About $184 million is for affected populations from South Sudan and more than $110 million for affected populations from Ethiopia.

    The humanitarian assistance includes more than $110 million for affected populations from Somalia.

    Tillerson said: “today I’m announcing $533 million in additional humanitarian assistance to fight famine and food insecurity and address other needs resulting from conflicts in Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Lake Chad Basin.

    “The alarming levels of hunger in these areas are largely man-made, as conflicts erupt and people flee their homes.

    “Under these conditions, people cannot produce crops and often lose access altogether to food, education, and health care. Many lose everything.

    “And regrettably, Mother Nature can still be cruel, such as in the Horn of Africa, where a prolonged drought is contributing to grave food insecurity”.

    According to him, these additional funds will provide emergency food, nutrition assistance, and other aid.

    This includes safe drinking water, thousands of tons of food, and deliver health programs to prevent the spread of deadly diseases like cholera to millions of people, he said adding “This will save lives”.

    “The American people, as we always have been, are there to partner with African countries to ensure their most vulnerable populations receive life-saving assistance.

    “We also call upon others to join us in meeting the growing humanitarian needs in Africa. We hope these initial contributions will encourage others to contribute aid to increase burden sharing and meet the growing humanitarian needs in Africa.

    “However, this assistance will not solve these ongoing conflicts, but only buy us time – time to pursue diplomatic solutions,” Tillerson stressed.

    According to him, ultimately it is up to the leaders in these countries, particularly in South Sudan, to stop the violence and put the welfare of their citizens at the forefront of their actions.

    He said millions would continue to be at risk as long as parties to these conflicts continue to engage in violence, calling on all parties to allow aid workers safe and unhindered access to help communities in need.

    The U.S. is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance for these crises in Africa, providing nearly three billion dollars since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2017. (NAN)

  • Dapchi kidnap terrible, says U.S.

    Dapchi kidnap terrible, says U.S.

    •Governor ‘okay with Fed Govt’s response’

    The United States has described the abduction of 110 Dapchi schoolgirls as “horrendous, unacceptable and terrible”.

    Department of State officials stated the U.S. position yesterday during a background briefing ahead of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s first trip to Africa.

    Tillerson is due to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari and leaders of Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya between today and March 13.

    The officials described Nigeria as critical to the stability of West Africa and the future engagement of the U.S. in the subregion.

    They pledged continued U.S. commitment in the fight against the Boko Haram terrorists.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the official said “on Nigeria, this – fight against Boko Haram – is really an important issue.

    “And I know that in the last administrations, even the last three, we have always said going to Nigeria is critical to stability and the future for the U.S. relationship in West Africa.

    “We are following the recent kidnappings of 110 school girls, which really kind of follows up on several years ago of the Chibok girls.

    “And those are horrendous, they’re unacceptable and terrible.

    “But the issue that comes in, it’s not only a security issue – and it is a terrible security challenge – but it’s also political issue and really building those institutions and political dialogue between north and south, and also with the region.

    “And so those are some of the things that we need to look at. It’s a comprehensive approach. The other issue, too, is on economic development and education.”

    The U.S. noted recent UN reports about some of the extremist operations in the G-5 countries and the Trans-Sahel.

    The department, however, regretted that the operations of some of these criminal groups were “about getting jobs” and “about looking at getting an income for families”.

    “And if terrorism or trafficking of persons, if that’s going to get them the jobs, then that’s unacceptable and we really need to find alternative ways to help the economic development in these regions.

    “And so those are some of the issues and challenges that we’ll be working on – political institutions, political dialogue, reconciliation, supporting community-based development, helping growth, education.”

    It said another issue was enhancing the security, particularly in the North, saying  “it just can’t be constantly a kinetic strike operation or bring in U.S. military”.

    “That’s not the answer. The answer has to be developing institutions and also providing good police training, military training, and having governments accountable to the people and having people really have faith in their institutions, and also having opportunities for job creation.

    “And what happens in Nigeria is going to affect the Lake Chad region, and that includes Cameroon as well as the G-5 countries.

    “So those are some of the things that we’re looking at, much more broad-based, comprehensive, and really interrelated with security.”

    The U.S. added that Nigeria’s 2019 general election and a peaceful transition remained its major priority in view of the country’s strategic position in the region.

    The department said over two decades ago, the number of countries in Africa with really democratically elected government was really very few – only three or four.

    It said, however, now we had over two dozen African countries with democratically elected governments and which are hopefully not going to have transitions in government through coup d’etats and other illegal methods.

    “As we look at the 20 elections, obviously Nigeria, though it’s not this year – it’s going to be next year – that really is a major priority focus, because that’s going to be the third most populous country in the world by 2050.

    “It has really very complex political issues and ethnic and tribal issues and security issues,

    “And that’s an area that we really are focusing on how to do a peaceful transition, a democratic transition, but more important is how to hold governments accountable to the people,” the State Department said.

    The department explained that, obviously, a lot of those African countries were still fragile democracies and the U.S. was trying to strengthen them.

    The U.S. commended the most recent elections in Liberia, saying it was the first open, fair, and peaceful transition of governments in over 75 years, saying that is a good thing.

    It regretted what it called the “horrendous rule of Charles Taylor and the degradation of the institutions there, but now we’ll going back and they’re building, and I think with the election of George Weah that’s going to be a positive thing”.

    The U.S. also noted the election of Nana Akufo-Addo in Ghana, Alassane Ouattara in Cote d’Ivoire and Macky Sall in Senegal, describing them as positive developments.

    It said, however, that Ethiopia remained a challenge for the U.S. and a focus for it as well and an opportunity.

    The U.S. explained that it was looking at trying to build institutions, really strengthen institutions, and also have peaceful transitions and hold governments accountable to the people in Ethiopia.

    It said it was also looking at how it could have reconciliation and dialogue among all of the various groups – the Oromos, the Amharas, the Tigrays, and also in Kenya with the opposition and with the ruling government.

    Accordingly, the department said building strong institutions and holding governments accountable are some of the things that are certainly going to be the subjects of discussion during Tillerson trip.

    “How do we advance political and economic reform that will help in the transition process? Those are issues too that we’re working in Zimbabwe with the transition between Robert Mugabe and Emmerson Mnangagwa.

    “And also we’re looking hopefully at South Africa with the election of Cyril Ramaphosa from Jacob Zuma and seeing how that’s going to transition,” the State Department  said.

  • U.S. Secretary of State visits Nigeria, 4 others next week

    U.S. Secretary of State visits Nigeria, 4 others next week

    U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would visit Nigeria and four other African countries from March 6 to 13, the U.S. Department of State has said.

    Spokesperson for the Department, Ms Heather Nauert said Tillerson would also travel to Addis Ababa, Djibouti, Nairobi and N’Djamena.

    During his visit to Abuja, Tillerson is expected to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari and other top government functionaries.

    Nauert said: “On his first official trip to Africa, Secretary Rex Tillerson will travel to N’Djamena, Chad; Djibouti, Djibouti; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Nairobi, Kenya and Abuja, Nigeria, March 6-13, 2018.

    “Secretary Tillerson will meet with leadership in each country, as well as the leadership of the African Union Commission based in Addis Ababa.

    “This is to further our partnerships with the governments and people of Africa.

    “In particular, he plans to discuss ways we can work with our partners to counter terrorism, advance peace and security, promote good governance, and spur mutually beneficial trade and investment.”

    During his trip, Tillerson will also meet with the U.S. Embassy personnel and participate in events related to U.S. government-supported activities. (NAN)

  • China criticises U.S. over Taiwan travel bill

    China criticises U.S. over Taiwan travel bill

    China on Thursday expressed its disapproval with the United States over a bill passed by the U.S. Senate seeking closer ties with Taiwan.

    “Although the bill is not legally binding, China strongly and resolutely opposes it and has lodged formal protests with Washington,’’ Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Hua Chunying, said.

    The bill, passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, allows U.S. officials at all levels to travel to Taiwan for meetings.

    It also permits high-level Taiwanese officials to enter the U.S. “under respectful conditions’’ to meet with their U.S. counterparts.

    Read Also:  China Devt Bank, UBA sign $100m loan for SMEs in Africa

    Report says the legislation now only needs U.S. President Donald Trump’s signature.

    Beijing, through its “One China’’ policy, prevents other nations from having formal ties with self-governing Taiwan, which it regards as a breakaway province.

    The spat came amid rising trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

    Top Chinese economic advisor Liu He is currently in Washington, reportedly to avert a trade war between the two countries.

    NAN

  • Adesina urges U.S. to support Africa’s agricbusiness

    Adesina urges U.S. to support Africa’s agricbusiness

    African Development Bank (AfDB)   President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has called for increased American and global investments to help unlock Africa’s agriculture potential.

    Adesina, who was the distinguished guest speaker at the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s ) 94th Agriculture Outlook Forum in Virginia, spoke on the theme The roots of prosperity.

    He said: ‘’For too long, agriculture has been associated with what I call the three Ps – pain, penury, and poverty. The fact though is that agriculture is a huge wealth-creating sector that is primed to unleash new economic opportunities that will lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.”

    Participants at the forum included the Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue; Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Stephen Censky; World Food Prize Foundation President, Kenneth Quinn; Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Robert Johansson; and Deputy Chief Economist, Warren Preston.

    Adesina appealed to the US private sector to change the way it views African agriculture.

    “Think about it, the size of the food and agriculture market in Africa will rise to US $ 1 trillion by 2030. This is the time for US agri-businesses to invest in Africa,” he said.

    ‘’And for good reason: Think of a continent where McKinsey projects household consumption is expected to reach nearly $2.1 trillion and business-to-business expenditure will reach $3.5 trillion by 2025. Think of a continent brimming with 840 million youth, the youngest population in the world, by 2050.”

    Adesina urged the U.S. government  to be at the forefront of efforts to encourage fertiliser and seed companies, manufacturers of tractors and equipment, irrigation and Information Communication Technology (ICT) farm analytics to ramp up their investments on the continent.

    “As the nation that first inspired me and then welcomed me with open arms, permit me to say that I am here to seek a partnership with America: a genuine partnership to help transform agriculture in Africa, and by so doing unlock the full potential of agriculture in Africa, unleash the creation of wealth that will lift millions out of poverty in Africa, while creating wealth and jobs back home right here in America,” the 2017 World Food Prize Laureate told the forum.

    Adesina told the more than 2,000 delegates that the AfDB is spearheading  some transformative business and agricultural initiatives.

    “We are launching the Africa Investment Forum, as a 100 per cent transactional platform, to leverage global pension funds and other institutional investors to invest in Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa from November 7-9,” he said.