Former President of Nigeria and African Union High Representative for the Horn of Africa region, Olusegun Obasanjo; President of the Union of the Comoros and Chairperson of the African Union, Azali Assoumani; President of the Republic of Ghana and the African Union Champion of Financial Institutions, Nana Akufo-Addo; and the President of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, have all been slated to speak at the forthcoming “Boma of Africa” Summit organized by the African Union Commission and its strategic partners, AfroChampions, which will take place on 8th July.
Other speakers included the President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Sahle-Work Zewde; the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu; the CEO of AUDA-NEPAD, Ms Nardos Bekele-Thomas; the AU Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry & Mining, Amb. Albert Muchanga; the Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, Wamkele Mene; the Director General, Africa CDC, Dr. Jean Kaseya; the Executive Secretary, ACBF, Mamadou Biteye; an AU Special Envoy & Executive Chair, Freedom Acquisition Corporation, Tidjane Thiam; and the Secretary General of AFCAC, Adefunke Adeyemi.
The African leaders are convening to launch an initiative called 4D aimed at fast-tracking transformational development across the African Continent by jumpstarting major engines of growth such as the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
Speaking ahead of the Summit, the Head of AUDA-NEPAD, Nardos Bekele-Thomas, said: “4D will mark a shift. In addition to mega-platforms specifically built to scale innovations, major development finance organizations and Funds are being persuaded to channel more resources to support innovations developed in Africa specifically for making the continent resilient and competitive even as global supply chains continue to be reshaped by geopolitics.” These platforms include those already in wide use such as PanaBIOS, ProPer and AfCFTA Hub, and emerging ones such as Tranzyt and Transforma.
In a press statement on 4th July, the African Union Commission said: “The main objective of the Boma is to assemble Africa’s decision makers across politics, business, technology and the technocracy, to commit to major actions to accelerate Africa’s attainment of the Agenda 2063 goals of unity and continental prosperity, thereby positioning Africa as a credible global force for good in the 21st Century”.
According to the Commission, “Key flagships to be accelerated by the 4D Pact include the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), the Protocol on Free Movement of People (PFMP), the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) and others”.
An AU spokesperson further explained that, “4D will boost the resources available to continent-wide platforms and accelerators such as BioNovac, the AfCFTA Hub, ProPer, the African Public Health Wallet (PanaBIOS-Trusted Health), and the Transforma Green Economy platform to increase the pace of progress towards Agenda 2063.”
A major departure from previous African Union programs aimed at accelerating development on the continent, however, is the new emphasis on startups, SMEs and spinoffs from universities, as well as the focus on a critical subset of technology fields to drive homegrown industrialisation and innovation.
“African leaders are looking for the next generation of unicorns that will revolutionize hot new sectors like biotech, gene editing, genomics and artificial intelligence,” said the AU press release.
“The goal is to channel such investments in such a way as to create a massive impact on health, trade, local manufacturing, and job creation. The new 4D Pact among key African Union institutions like the AfCFTA Secretariat, Africa CDC, AUDA-NEPAD, AFCAC and ACBF, creates a path for them to mobilise tens of millions of dollars from development finance institutions and aid agencies, some of whom have already committed to the vision. The Africa Finance Corporation, BADEA and Afreximbank are supporters of the vision,” a spokesperson for the 55-nation political union further added.
Explaining the genesis of the 4D initiative, the AU spokesperson said: “The 4D Initiative builds on the Trillion Dollar Fund (TDF) announced in 2020, which initially focused primarily on driving trade in goods manufactured in Africa under the AfCFTA.”
A document detailing the evolution of the TDF to 4D highlighted how the AU will now shift the emphasis from simply encouraging more trade among member states to broader objectives that will cover biotech innovation, digital health, artificial intelligence and the green economy.
“To ensure that the funds being mobilised have a major social impact, an innovation marketplace and common digital platforms have already been created by consortia led by AU agencies and partners like AfroChampions to ensure that services created by startups can scale up faster. These platforms include the AfCFTA Hub, ProPer, Tranzyt, PanaBIOS, and Transforma”, the Spokesperson said.
Another highlight of the 8th July Summit is the inaugural Sankore lecture, which this year is being delivered by International banker, Tidjane Thiam. The famous financial guru will speak on how to position Africa for global relevance.
Since the African Union instituted the “Africa Integration Day”, the Union has partnered with AfroChampions every year during the month of July to host festivities commemorating and showcasing major successes and forward-looking initiatives of the African Union and its partners. This has been dubbed the “Boma of Accra”, the premium convening on the continental calendar during which leading players come together virtually and in person to articulate game-changing action plans for harnessing the power of innovation as an enabler, to foster a culture of collaboration, and to propel top scientists, startups and innovators to new heights.
“Africa is a potential four trillion-dollar market where opportunities for advancing areas such as biomedical, vaccine, biopharmaceutical, e-genomics, and biosecurity abound, just waiting to be harnessed,” a briefing shared with the press by the organisers said.
The primary focus of this year’s Boma being the signing of the 4D Pact by the AU’s lead agencies, the question was obviously asked as to how practically this will change the tempo of continental integration.
To which an AU spokesperson responded:
“Signing the 4D pact will jumpstart continental integration, thereby driving job creation and establishing stronger knowledge economies. This aligns with the Africa Union’s Agenda 2063 outlining the vision for the ‘Africa We Want.’
“At the core of the vision is an innovation-driven marketplace that will encourage cross-border collaboration to shape a greener continent and create climate smart jobs”.
It would be interesting to check back during next year’s Boma to see how much progress was made on this ambitious agenda.
