Former President of Ghana, Mr. John
Kufuor, has called on African countries to pursue good governance and
sustain the fight against corruption to sustain investor confidence and
foreign investments.
He noted that African countries had in the last two decades liberalised
their economies to attract investments, but said there was the need to
make further gains by ensuring good governance.
Kufuor spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt in a keynote address he
presented at the 2014 Energy, Environment, and Investment Forum (EEIF)
organised by the Rivers state Government, with the theme: Sustainable
Energy, The Key to Africa’s World Integration.
According to the former Ghanaian president, who is also the United
Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, “In the
course of the last two decades, African countries had generally
liberalised their economies, by way of all-embracing regulatory reforms,
making them investor-friendly.
“Most are practising good governance principles that should attract investment know-how and technology transfer.
"This has engendered an investment atmosphere of serious win-win
public-private-partnership possibilities, to develop the African
continent.
“However, African countries must make further gains in good governance
by ensuring the rule of law, respect for constitutional rights, as well
as the predictability of the law and of justice. They should pursue the
fight against graft, corruption and malfeasance in government more
vigorously. It is when these are pursued that investor confidence will
be buoyed and the needed domestic and foreign investments will be
realised.”
He also noted that Africa has abundant and year-round sunshine which
could be tapped for ambitious solar energy generation for our use and
for export, granted that the necessary transformational technological
transfer would be available to make it affordable.
He called on African countries, especially those with vast areas of
desert land, to embark on a vigorous regimen of energy production from
solar and wind sources for domestic use and for export.
“We should immediately start investing in Sustainable Energy on a grand
scale because not only is it the right thing to do, but also the
necessary thing to do as we seek the sustainability of our planet and
world integration,” he said.
“Indeed, in some parts of Africa, measures of health standards have
rather declined. What seemed to have escaped the development planners
when fashioning out these MDGs, is probably the appreciation of the
centrality of energy access to all facets of human endeavours. They
ostensibly failed to factor energy access as a critical and catalytic
development goal needing its own specific and unequivocal objective of
attainment.
Kufuor noted that the World Energy Outlook 2011 Report of the
International Energy Agency had said there were 1.3 billion people
around the world in developing countries without access to electricity,
and more than 2.7 billion forced to cook with solid biomass, mostly
using insufficient and polluting technologies.
“This is a large portion of the world’s population confronted with
absolute energy poverty. These people are trapped in the vicious cycle
of poverty,” he said.
Earlier in his welcome address, Rivers State governor, Rt. Hon.
Chibuike Amaechi, described energy as the bond that connects economic,
social, and environmental development, saying that no country can
successfully reduce poverty without adequately addressing its energy
needs.
Amaechi said; “Energy is the bond that connects economic, social, and
environmental development. It is a launching pad for economic growth and
plays a pivotal role in any attempt to achieve sustainable development.
No country can successfully reduce poverty without adequately
addressing its energy needs.”
He stated that his administration embarked on several projects to
increase the availability of power in the state, including the
construction of new power projects and rehabilitated old ones, pointing
out that the focus of his administration was to achieve uninterrupted
power supply across the state in 2015.
Amaechi noted that Nigeria was experiencing security challenges, but
expressed optimism that the country would overcome the obstacles to
development.
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