Your Excellency, Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal and Chairperson of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee;

Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government;

Your Excellency, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union;

Honourable Ministers and Heads of African Regional Economic Communities here present;

AU Commissioners;

Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer of the NEPAD Agency;

Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank;

Distinguished Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen;

Comrades and Friends

As we assemble once again at this important 34th Session of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee, I wish to first of all extend my delegation’s deep gratitude over the facilities that have been laid for us by the Government and people of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. The excellent ambience should indeed ensure the success of our deliberations.

Allow me also to acknowledge and congratulate our dear colleague, His Excellency President Macky Sall over the excellent leadership he has provided to our august body since he assumed the Chair. We have all the confidence that under your wise counsel, Your Excellency, our esteemed body will continue to open new frontiers towards Africa’s development.

It would be remiss on my part if I do not also acknowledge the excellent work that the NEPAD Agency is doing towards the implementation of the programmes and projects that we have collectively identified. This has been possible because of the able guidance and leadership of our Chief Executive Officer, Dr.Ibrahim Mayaki. We wish to thank him and his team most sincerely.

Colleagues,

Our family has got a new member in the person of President Dr. John Magufuli of the United Republic of Tanzania who is attending this session for the first time. We welcome you heartily, Your Excellency, to this fraternal body.

Permit me also to warmly welcome Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, our new President of the African Development Bank. Congratulations, my dear brother, on your resounding election. I wish you success in the leadership of our important Bank.

Your Excellencies;

Before I delve into the substance of my brief remarks, I wish to re-affirm the critical role of the NEPAD Agency as our Union’s economic development arm. In that important role, it has performed exceptionally well to date as evidenced by the number of achievements it has registered. I wish to outline a few of those notable achievements as follows:

The Agency has been at the fore-front of mobilizing resources to fund infrastructural and other developmental activities under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) frameworks. Agriculture and infrastructure development are key pillars in our continental vision, Agenda 2063, which if given due attention have immense potential to spur African development.

In the area of Information Communication Technology (ICT), the NEPAD Agency has pioneered the introduction of the new multipurpose technology that seeks to improve communication and adaptation to climate change and other Africa-specific challenges using African solutions.

The recent introduction of the Systems Application Products (SAP) programme, a versatile internet communication system, is yet another welcome breakthrough which is set to improve interaction between Member States on the continent.

The inception of these new systems is timely as they will help to improve efficiency in the way the continent does its business and to help monitor continental development in the implementation of Agenda 2063. In addition, these new online multipurpose portals will facilitate connectivity and timely dissemination of Africa-owned information and knowledge products to a wide range of stakeholders, including Member States, Regional Economic Communities and development partners.
Dear Colleagues,

In yet another breakthrough, the NEPAD Agency has developed a model law on medical products regulation that Member States could use to review their own existing laws. This development has come at a time when most of our states are overwhelmed by imported medicines whose efficacy on the continent is not known.

The launch of the Africa Global Partnership Platform (AGPP) in October 2015, in your country Chairperson, under the aegis of the Agency is a most welcome development as it is intended to streamline our partnership arrangements. We need coherence and coordination when we deal with our cooperating partners.

As we cooperate with these partners, we need to ensure we retain control of the African development agenda as we have the unique advantage of fully appreciating the needs and priorities of our people.

Equally important, Chair, was the launch of the Continental Business Network in June 2015 in Cape Town, South Africa. As a platform to create conditions for the involvement and participation of our private sector in our development programmes, the business network can play a key role in ensuring that both Governments and the private sector reap the rewards of development in Africa.

Colleagues;

As our agenda discusses the issue of skills and migration, I wish to observe that the migration of African youths is an issue of serious concern that has to be addressed urgently. Not only does it dent our image as Africa, but also stymies our economic development endeavors. We cannot continue to allow a situation where our able-bodied men and women embark on risky and perilous journeys across the oceans in search of a supposedly “better world”.

In this context, I wish to call on the NEPAD Agency to assist Member States in creating facilities to equip our youths with the necessary skills that guarantee them employment opportunities. In addition, the Agency is called upon to assist in the creation of small industries and businesses targeting women and youths so that the need to migrate is minimized. Africa needs to benefit from its critical human resource, the young people, whom we must nurture to enable their meaningful participation in national development efforts.

Your Excellencies,

Africa has enormous mineral resources which have not been adequately harnessed for the sustainable development of the continent. Failure to exploit these mineral endowments is attributable to lack of appropriate knowledge and skills, technology and infrastructure, among others. As a result, Africa’s minerals are exported in their raw form.

It is against this background that the African Union Assembly decided, in 2005, to establish four African institutes of science and technology across the continent. These Centers of Excellence would focus on research and innovation linked to entrepreneurship.

I wish to inform Your Excellencies that for the Southern Africa Region, Zimbabwe is setting up the Pan African Minerals University of Science and Technology (PAMUST) whose focus will be minerals beneficiation and value addition. As a pan-African institute, the University will open its doors to all African Post Graduate Students to conduct cutting-edge research. It is our hope that the Pan African Minerals University of Science and Technology would produce outstanding African scientists, engineers and technologists who will impact positively on the continent’s economic transformation.

We once again call upon the NEPAD Agency to shore up and help to capacitate and buttress these fledgling science and technology institutions. I am also appealing to the African Development Bank and the African private business sector to support these Centers of Excellence in the spirit of corporate responsibility and pan-Africanism.

Colleagues;

As I conclude my remarks, I wish you successful deliberations and further wish you fruitful discussions during our Assembly of the African Union that is slated ahead of this august session.

I thank you.