Africa needs to decolonize economic structure – UNDP Resident Representative 

…says the continent must tackle corruption and illicit financial flows

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Resident Representative in Zimbabwe, Dr. Ayodele Odusola, on Tuesday, warned that there cannot be sustainable future development financing in Africa without a genuine structural economic transformation.

Odusola who stated this while presenting the first Faculty Distinguished Personality Lecture of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences of the University of Ibadan, entitled, “The Future of Development Finance in Africa”, said this is the engine of high-powered growth and propellant of decent job creation.

While stating that the opinions expressed in his lecture were strictly his and not that of the UNDP, he insisted that African countries must brace up to rely on their own resources and private financing, which will be bolstered by innovative financing, genuine structural transformation, and good governance.

He maintained that Africa must tackle corruption, stop Illicit Financial flows (IFFs) and redundant waivers, and end being experts in primary commodities export, noting that this give them more choices for development policies and results than before.

Odusola disclosed that the future of development finance in Africa calls for a decolonized economic structure that is built on been a supplier of cheap raw materials, consumers of industrialized goods from the advanced countries, and destination of obsolete industrial equipment and technologies, insisting that this locks out Africa from been a major player in the global value chain.

He said, “Any financing architecture that continues to oil the extractive mechanism, without a genuine structural economic transformation anchored on food sovereignty, energy sovereignty, and technological sovereignty, will continue to create fiscal and debt traps, as well as low development equilibrium traps in Africa. The future of development finance, in its political, institutional, and technical dimensions, must be seen in the context of enhanced global coherence and evolving political will directed at bringing about change in the present international financial architecture. Africa needs to be focused on becoming a major player in the Global South by avoiding the diversionary tactics of emerging geo-politics.

“In this context, trade should not be viewed by its own sake but as an instrument of development finance. In this regard, relevant policies and regulations should be put in place for trade to become a stimulus for development finance in Africa. The AFREXIM Bank, the Trade Bank, and other pan-African trade institutions should work together for a results-oriented framework for Africa.”

The Dean, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Prof. Abiodun Folawewo, in his remarks, stated that adequate financial resources are needed for the African continent’s aspiration of building the ‘Africa We Want’ to be possible.

“It is important to note that the future of development finance in Africa requires paradigm change from the existing practice by African leaders of ‘kneeling with cap in hand, begging and looking up to financial assistance from the developed world”, he said.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, represented by Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic, Prof. Aderonke Bayeroju, noted that one of the basic problems confronting many African countries is how to mobilise enough resources to address the development gaps in the face of fiscal constraints, adding that the topic of the lecture is “relevant to the development challenges being faced by African countries, especially Nigeria”

According to him, the First Distinguished Personality Lecture of the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, which is coupled with the launching of the book titled, Reminiscences indicates that since its establishment in 2016, the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences has grown both in leaps and bounds and has become solidified, stating that the “launch of the reminiscences book which showcases the landmark footsteps of giants in the Department of Economics demonstrates the solid foundation upon which the Faculty is built.”