Ugo Aliogo
Afrexim Chief Economist, Dr. Hippolyte Fofack has urged West African countries to build greater cooperation to strengthen the financial architecture for global and regional market integration.
Fofack disclosed during a virtual media briefing on the 6th Annual Babacar Ndiaye Lecture with the theme; ‘Africa’s Road to COP27 and beyond outlining the priorities and opportunities for the continent.’
He hinted that the impact of the AfCFTA global market economy would address the urgency of African financial architecture and expand the size of market investment to boost trade volumes for global delivery.
He stated that the trade and political issues were weakening bargaining powers while he said that the AfCFTA regional trade would consolidate Africans voice to strengthen integration with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to address issues of future events.
Fofack opined that the corporation is working strenuously with its partners to foster fruitful conversations on regional integration initiatives to develop regional value chains, “and adapt to climate change in order to build climate-smart strategies that contribute to development of the African continent.”
“The second is the huge amounts of funds required to adapt to climate change, which is why regional integration must be emphasized through the African Continental Free Trade Area, which is the largest free trade area in terms of the number of participating countries and which can provide the necessary capacity to attract investments to Africa in higher value-added production and generate growth driven by innovation and entrepreneurship,” he stated.
In the same vein, Director of Neighboring Countries Operations at the European Investment Bank (EIB), Lionel Rabail, revealed that Africa is rich with opportunities, and that the European Investment Bank seeks to provide long-term financing for African countries in green projects, including Egypt.
The Secretary-General of the African Organization for Standardization, Dr. Hermogene Nsengimana, noted that the COP27 conference comes at an opportune time to explore a “Made in Africa” initiative to promote Africa’s export goods.
