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A round table discussion held around the topic ‘Resilient World: An African call for a new world order’ at the New York Forum Institute hosted Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holdings. Alongside Tony Elumelu at the roundtable were Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Tidjane Thiam where they talked about beginning a new order for Africa.
Elumelu projects the new order with the ghastly endemic of poverty and unemployment.
He said that palliative support is an immediate humanitarian intervention that is important but is also short term. “The root causes of the unfortunate African situation needs a different approach,” Tony Elumelu said.
Tony Elumelu on New Order for Africa
In addressing the root cause, Elumelu redirects towards the “policy myopic leaders”. He says they have for long led the continent in this pattern.
Debt and debt liability may be a way out as he noted. But it is also “the same circularity that has led Africa to this current state of embarrassment….” he said.
Calling for more relief and external assistance puts the continent in embarrassing situations. Therefore, Africa must step up and hit the reset button or nothing will be enough he indicated. The pandemic is an awakening, “a bittersweet moment of clarity and reflection which we must seize to reset our continent”.
This kind of reset is hard work and requires a level of financing. Under the leadership of Prof. Okey Oramah, the World Bank, IMF, G20 countries and all other relevant agencies are getting involved in what he calls a Marshall Plan for Africa.
“If Africa does not step up its own efforts to support itself and if this effort is not led by Africans, then no amount of external assistance will be enough”.
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