Speaking at a media interview, Ahunna Eziakonwa, the United Nations Assistant Secretary General and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Director for Africa, asserts that the United States’ newly announced tariffs underscore an urgent need for Africa to reduce dependency on foreign aid.
Highlighting how bureaucratic hurdles in aid systems have hindered nations like Nigeria from attaining Sustainable Development Goals, she emphasizes prioritizing diversification into non-oil industries as a strategic pathway to progress.
Eziakonwa said, “What is happening now globally is a wake-up call for Africa because what is making the achievement of the SDG that much more difficult? Yes, there has been COVID, and yes, there has been a lot of financial turbulence, but the fact that we have not been able to go beyond aid to really prioritize things like structured transformation that allows us to add value to our raw materials so that our Africa is not just exporting raw materials rather than creating industries that will create jobs—that is the one that needs to be addressed urgently.
“And the current tariff situation pushes us even harder because you can’t just be an oil economy anymore; the volatility is too much. You can crash at any moment when the prices go down. So, you have to be forced to look at the non-oil sector; that forces you as a country to now say, “Where are the investments that we need to industrialize, to do a little bit more manufacturing?”
ALSO READ TOP STORIES FROM VERILY NEWS
