03 Jun 2013

African governments have been called upon to provide an environment that will ensure that the private sector grows.

 Chief Executive Officer of Yedent Agro processing in Kenya, Mr Samuel Adu made the call during a panel debate at the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) thematic sessions.

Mr Adu whose discussion was based on the theme: Private Sector, Trade and Investment as engines of development, said there was need for African governments to put in place appropriate policies. He said governments could also help the private sector thrive by ensuring that bankable projects had been adequately prepared and by expanding financing options.

Mr Adu said agriculture business formed base of the pyramid of the business sector and therefore whatever happened to it was crucial to the entire sector. He appreciated that some African governments were playing pivotal roles by ensuring subsidies in tractors, seeds and fertilizers.

However, he indicated that a lot still needed to be done especially in ensuring that the nutritional benefits of the agriculture produce to the Africans. He noted that Africa was still faced with nutritional deficiencies that accounted to some of the deaths.

Mr Adu said African governments also needed to identify agriculture entrepreneurs, incubate and groom them and come up with policies geared towards nutrition. Strategy and innovation director of Safari Com in Kenya, Mr Joseph Ogutu said Africa had 750 million cellphone handsets thus having the fastest mobile phone growth.

Mr Ogutu called on financial institutions in Africa to provide credit financing to the industry to ensure its growth also boasted other industries. He said with mobile phones, the industry did not only provide job opportunities in terms of agents who sold airtime and devices but also boasted some industries such as that of transport.

With introduction of cellphones, he said some taxi operators had introduced a system whereby their clientele phoned them when they needed services instead of looking for passengers who might be on the roads.

The discussions focused on how IT, agribusiness and small micro enterprises associated with natural resources had contributed to growth in recent years and how they were likely to continue to do so. ENDS