African leaders have to be proactive like Asia’s -Mauritius

The joint expert group meeting on the role of small and medium enterprises in the industrialization process in Southern Africa ended recently with a clarion call from Mauritius for African leaders to walk the talk on agreed programmes that will change the lives of ordinary people on the ground.

In his closing remarks, Anil Kumar Kokil, a director in the Finance and Economic Ministry of Mauritius, said African leaders and experts have taken firm action to tackle the continent's problems but now needed to move to the next level of implementing agreed programmes and protocols that he said will no doubt change the fortunes of Africa.

“We can talk and talk but will remain stagnant as a continent if we do not take initiative as done by the Asian leaders. They implemented their action plans. We need to stop discussing and have action on the ground fast if we are going to eliminate poverty by bringing inclusive development,” said Kokil.

He said Africa had enough resources that can be harnessed if all nations collaborated sincerely in win-win situations for the benefit of its citizens.

“Winds of change will not come to the continent if our leaders do not take us to the next level where we can create wealth for our nations. We need to complete things by implementing what we agree on; we know where we want to go so let’s put our heads together to develop and implement what we agree on and create the Africa we want.

“As Mauritius we are determined to make things happen for our nation and we would want to do this along with our African brothers and sisters, that’s why we are saying Africa must wake up and see that winds of change are blowing the world over. Focus is on us as the next frontier.”

Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Director for the Southern African region, Said Adejumobi, agreed with Kokil that leadership was crucial for Africa to take the continent to the next level.

“I must say that we have learnt a lot from our colleagues here in Mauritius during this meeting. The quality of leadership in this country is very high, the engagement of cabinet ministers was also very high. Leadership is key to the process of socio-economic transformation,” he said.