Paul Biya: The problem of financing is a major setback to Africa’s economic growth

Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, has shared his vision on how Africa can better develop as a continent. He says one of the major drawbacks to Africa’s economic growth is the ever present problem of financing.

He was speaking during a round table conference organized by the Milken Institute and Invest Africa US on December 12th in Washington DC.

The discussions and deliberations were focussed on “how finance can be a force for good in addressing Africa’s most pressing challenges and opportunities and contributing towards solving seemingly unresolvable global problems”.

Paul Biya pointed out that Africa is endowed with enormous potentials and these resources are either under-exploited or when exploited, are not transformed on the continent to create added value and wealth for Africa.

He mentioned that Africa highly depends on aid for development which no longer seems to correspond to the continent’s needs:

“Regrettably, the continent has access to a negligible portion of financial resources in circulation around the world”.

He added that some of the legal frameworks that generally govern the process of obtaining financing are so constrained and increase Africa’s exposure to budgetary risks.

However, he proposed that financing, exploitation, and transformation of Africa’s resources be done on the continent. In order to achieve this, Biya believes Africa will need an important volume of capital for long-term financing.

He concluded by expressing his desire to put in place an African Capital Market which will be more likely to offer adaptable tools for the financing and development of the continent.
The US African Leaders summit is in Washington, USA and over 50 African leaders are present.