By zainab.joaque@awokonewspapersl.com
Abuja, Nigeria – July 1, 2025 – At the 32nd Afreximbank Annual Meetings in Abuja, the call for Africa to ditch dependency on aid and embrace trade took on renewed urgency during a riveting conversation that followed a stirring keynote. The dialogue featured two intellectual powerhouses—Arunma Oteh, Nigerian academic and former World Bank Treasurer, and Kishore Mahbubani, Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute—who challenged the continent to sweat the small stuff if the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is to become more than a paper agreement.
Oteh opened by paying tribute to Afreximbank’s outgoing president, Professor Benedict Oramah, praising his “4C leadership”—character, compassion, competence, and courage. She emphasized that Africa’s trajectory hinges on the quality of its leadership and warned that vision, however grand, must be backed by execution.
But it was the shifting global landscape that took centre stage. Mahbubani painted a sobering picture of a world hurtling toward heightened geopolitical tensions, with the US-China rivalry intensifying and regional conflicts muddying the waters of global cooperation. He blamed the war in Ukraine on what he called the European Union’s “geopolitical incompetence” and warned that distractions in the Middle East could obscure Africa’s real opportunity—to sidestep ideological entanglements and focus on trade.
He pointed to Southeast Asia as a model. ASEAN, he noted, has thrived not by picking sides, but by deepening ties with both superpowers and relentlessly investing in trade facilitation. His figures were staggering: US investment in ASEAN now surpasses that in China, Japan, South Korea, and India combined; China’s trade with ASEAN has exploded from $40 billion in 2000 to nearly $1 trillion in 2022. The magic, Mahbubani insisted, lies not in grand speeches but in sweating the small stuff—simplifying customs, modernizing ports, and making border crossings efficient.
To drive the message home, he recounted his own frustrating experience with Nigeria’s immigration system—arriving at dawn, only to wrestle with glitchy electronic landing cards and unreliable Wi-Fi. “If Africa wants AfCFTA to succeed, it must tackle these micro-level dysfunctions,” he said. Quoting Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who once inspected airport toilets to ensure perfect first impressions, Mahbubani underscored the importance of continuous, incremental improvements—what the Japanese call kaizen.
Oteh picked up the thread, hailing Afreximbank’s proactive role during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Africa, abandoned by vaccine-hoarding Western countries, took matters into its own hands. That episode, she said, proved the power of collective action and regional platforms. “We negotiated as a bloc, and we secured better outcomes. That is the strength of integration,” she affirmed.
Mahbubani agreed, noting that while Europe has successfully built a continent-wide union, it now suffers from a “deficit of optimism.” Africa, on the other hand, is brimming with energy and promise, driven by a youthful population and a growing appetite for regional cooperation.
Asked what he would do if made president of Africa, Mahbubani laid out three priorities. First, Africa must learn from within. “There are many success stories already on the continent—airlines, food industries. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Copy what works,” he advised, echoing how Singapore scaled its progress by adapting best practices from around the world. “Whatever problem you face, someone else has solved it. Learn from them.”
His second prescription came in three letters: MPH—meritocracy, pragmatism, and honesty. “These are the pillars of any thriving society,” he said. “Singapore didn’t invent them; we just implemented them consistently. Africa can too.” Meritocracy ensures the right people lead, pragmatism keeps policies grounded in reality, and honesty builds public trust—together, they form a potent engine for progress.
His third priority was deepening regional integration by eliminating bottlenecks. Mahbubani painted a picture of Africa as a magnet for the global middle class, especially from Asia, which is projected to swell to nearly three billion people by 2030. “They want to come to Africa. But they won’t if it takes hours to clear customs or if air travel is a nightmare,” he warned. Making it easy to travel and trade across African borders, he argued, will unlock immense economic potential.
When the discussion turned to human capital and infrastructure, Mahbubani called for realistic, step-by-step improvements. “We don’t have to reach American or European standards overnight. If we can get to Malaysia or Thailand’s level, that alone would be a major leap,” he said, emphasizing achievable goals.
As the conversation wound down, the message was unmistakable: the promise of AfCFTA will not be realized by rhetoric or top-level agreements alone. Africa’s real challenge—and its greatest opportunity—lies in the unglamorous but essential work of building better systems, stronger institutions, and seamless regional infrastructure. “Don’t just dream big,” Mahbubani said. “Get the small things right. That’s how transformation begins.” ZIJ/1/7/2025
