THE African Capacity Building Foundation is ready to help member countries develop the skills needed to develop their economies in order to benefit from the continental common market, Emmanuel Nnadozie, the executive secretary, said.

The shortage of skills on the continent to drive its industrialisation poses a challenge to the successful implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, Nnadozie said in Lagos this past weekend at the Africa Trade Forum.

“Studies conducted by ACBF show that there is a serious deficit of critical technical skills and that most universities in Africa are investing more in social sciences and humanities than science disciplines,” Nnadozie said.

According to him, key areas where human capital development is needed is in Science and technology, agriculture and mining and so the universities and training centres should enrol more students in these areas.

The executive secretary assured the member-countries that the Foundation which has been designated African Union’s specialized agency for capacity development was their “trusted partner” in building these critical skills.

Since the economies of most African countries depend on one product for their survival, he urged them to adopt “deliberate measures” to invest in the human capacity of the producers so that they can refine them and add value to earn better returns.

“African countries must also invest in roads, rails and waterways to facilitate free movement of people and goods across their borders,” Nnadozie said, adding that it would lead to better facilitation of trade, reduction in transport costs which would help African manufacturers integrate into global and regional value chains.

The common market, bringing together the continent’s over one billion people with a gross domestic product estimated at $3.4 trillion, is seen as a game changer because of the expected boost to Africa’s economic development. Forty-four countries signed the agreement earlier this year in Kigali. It will become operational after ratification by 22 countries.

The conference was organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, the AU and the Rockefeller Foundation.

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– Nov. 12, 2018 @ 16:49 GMT |