11th African Private Sector Forum Declaration.

1. We, representatives of the business and economic communities from Africa applaud the 11th African Private Sector Forum organized by the African Union Commission in collaboration with the Government of Madagascar, OIF and UNOSSC in Antananarivo Madagascar on 6-8 November 2019;

2. We strongly commit to work jointly under the agreed theme "Transforming African Economies through Private Sector Engagement and Capitalizing on the Experiences of African Countries and other regions of the world”;

3. We express our profound gratitude to the Government of the Republic of Madagascar for hosting this event in a manner that ensured the successful holding of this Forum;

4. We, witness with great honour the presence of H.E Christian Louis Ntsay Prime Minister of the Republic of Madagascar and H.E Victor Harison Commissioner of Economic Affairs, African Union Commission which reaffirm their endeavor to support the Private Sector in socio-economic development in Africa;

5. We acknowledge the presence of Ministers, African Business Associations, Public and Private sector organizations, Chambers of Commerce, Business Councils, Union of Industries Manufacturers Associations, Financial Institutions, Women and Youth Entrepreneurs, African SMEs , private sector stakeholders’ and academia;

6. We Take note of the Training of women and youth entrepreneurs that was held from 3-5 November 2019, in Antananarivo, Madagascar and determined to be more proactive, effective and resolved to identifying accurately the business environment reform needs;

7. We hereby agree on the following:
Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for the transformation of African economies;

8. We acknowledge the importance of Structural economic transformation in Africa which is central to achieving Agenda 2063;

9. We recognize the need for Africa to strengthen its policies for enhancing its industrialization especially in the areas of productive capacity and human capital development;

10. We express our strong support to boost joint efforts to advance economic transformation and development, with the objective of creating inclusive and sustainable growth and more and better jobs, especially for youth and women, in respect of internationally agreed labour standards and decent working conditions;

11. We acknowledge the need to make greater efforts to establish the right business framework to attract sustainable investment and foster our effort for entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enterprises, and start-ups;

12. We also acknowledge the importance for Africa to adapt clear SMEs policies that puts SMEs at the center of industrialization drive; identify opportunities and create policies that are linked to the domestic delivery; and for African Union Commission in collaboration with the Regional Economic Communities to support African Member States to create Regional Value Chains that offers greater opportunity for industry.

Role of the Private Sector in the transformation of African economies

13. We aim to work with the AUC in collaboration with the private Sector actors and other Pan African institutions to actively engage and lobby AU member states to simplify business registration and licensing procedures so as to ease doing business in their respective countries;

14. We also aim to work with the AUC in collaboration with the Private Sector and other Pan African institutions through engaging and encouraging AU member states to establish proper disclosure requirements so that information is readily available to investors and consumers;

15. We reaffirm the importance of involving the private Sector actors in policy consultation and formulation with regard to regulations and ensure that financial rules are open and accessible to all businesses, including small businesses and for the African Union Commission to partner with AU member states and institute programs that provide entrepreneurs with technological, managerial, and financial skills;

16. We call upon the African Union Commission in collaboration with its pan African Development Institutions and other Development partners to establish the necessary mechanisms such as technical and financial capabilities to support the operationalization and seamless implementation of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA);

17. We also call upon the private sector to increase Investments in Energy and the development of infrastructure and agro-business in general in order to support productive capacity and industrialization.

Investing in human capital to support the structural transformation of African economies

18. We Call upon AU member states, with the support of the AUC and ACBF to undertake a comprehensive mapping of the critical skills needed to drive economic transformation; and invest in education with an emphasis on science and technology to equip the youth with the skills needed to improve their capacity of doing business;

19. We also call upon Member States to invest in the digital economy to take advantage of the opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution to achieve socio-economic transformation in Africa and design policies and strategies that aim at reducing the brain drain for capacity development and retention to reduce the brain drain that deprives the continent with its talents;

20. We reaffirm the importance of strengthening public-private dialogue to reinforce the role of the private sector in designing and implementing optimal educational systems that promote employability and call upon the African Union Commission with the support of ACBF to assist Member States in developing and implementing plan to harness the demographic dividend.

Co-financing investments in key sectors of African transformation and alternative financing for the private sector

21. We reaffirm the determination to facilitate creating more financing solutions for women, youth entrepreneurs and SME through introducing tailored schemes to help entrepreneurs’ access loan guarantees, microfinance and a range of alternative instruments and markets;

22. We call upon Member States in collaboration with the Private Sectors to initiate local currency cross border payments platform to facilitate cross border trade and involve private sector financial institutions in the financing decision;

23. We also call upon for greater corporation among the continent’s commercial banks and DFIs to support major projects, along with international financiers.

Unlocking Finance & Impact for SME’s and PPPs in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Africa

24. We recognize that transformation of African economies and achievement of the aspirations of Agendas 2063 and 2030 will not be successful without promoting local economic development in the least developed countries (LDCs) in Africa where development needs are greatest and where resources are scarcest;

25. We acknowledge that achieving the SDGs requires more support for national financial mechanisms to de-risk and provide technical assistance to SMEs and PPPs located in secondary cities in LDCs. Those financial mechanisms and platforms can take very different forms, such as Local Development Funds, Sovereign Funds, Strategic Funds, Development Banks, and Local Government Agencies;

26. We also acknowledge that South-South Cooperation is necessary to share experiences and find innovative solutions adapted to national contexts. Concrete examples from all around the world need to be shared. The panel calls for a specific initiative from the African Union to present such examples to the entire African community.

Co-production in the mining industry to boost the transformation of African economies

27. We call upon companies to focus on building out a digital strategy that is aligned with their business model, processes and organization, to encourage digital usage and experimentation;

28. We recognize that Mining is a capital-intensive industry, therefore improving active and open partnerships is the groundwork for best-in-class digitalization, and offers opportunities to overcome challenges such as industry specialization, the increased significance of local communities and high capital intensity.

Modernization of production by utilizing digital technologies to accelerate the transformation process of African economies

29. We call upon the on African Union Commission to set up a committee and develop a Strategy focusing on the 4th Industrial Revolution;

30. We also call upon Member States to accelerate the Training of Youth particularly in the areas of Digital and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and provide greater support to incubators;

31. We agree to support Start-Ups with mentoring and skills development by creating more partnerships between Start-Ups and established companies.

Co-production in the agribusiness sector for the transformation of African economies

32. We recognize the need for Member States to encourage and support public private partnership to mobilize resources in order carryout research in developing high-yield crops. Increased research into plant breeding, which takes into account the unique soil types of Africa as well as boost irrigation and Increase the use of fertilizers to improve Agricultural productivity;

33. We encourage Member states to strengthen and improve market access, regulations, and governance through improving rural infrastructure such as roads networks as well as make better use of information technology to better crop, fertilizer and pesticide selection. It improves land and water management, provides access to weather information, and connects farmers to sources of credit;

34. We also encourage Member states to reform land ownership with productivity and inclusiveness in mind to ensure security of land tenure, and enable land to be used as collateral where necessary and support integration into Agricultural Value Chains (AVCs) to enable smallholder farms access to global markets.

Innovative strategies for promoting tourism in the transformation of African economies

35. We acknowledge the importance for a coherent and unified approach for encouraging the tourism sector in Africa to drive socio-economic transformation as encapsulated in Agenda 2063 and Agenda 2030 and encourages Member states to develop tourism strategies focusing on the value of their product to be competitive in the international market;

36. We also acknowledges the need for strong political support for tourism at a high level in government and take the lead in creating the enabling environment, infrastructure, effective institutions and coordinating mechanisms to maintain a dialogue with all stakeholders to build a peaceful, stable and attractive environment for tourism development;

37. We encourage Member States to reduce the constraints to tourism development through facilitation of access to finance, attractive tax regimes to foster tourism investments, upgrade tourism skills, address security, safety and high crime, ameliorate public health services and ameliorate visa requirements and red tape and bureaucracy;

38. We also encourage Member States to harness technology through digitization of processes to equip counties with the tools, frameworks, and technologies to create and add value to tourism products and experiences. Digitization of the tourism sector is critical to share, learn and collaborate.

Strengthen entrepreneurship among youth and women to help transform economies in Africa

39. We encourage Member States to involve women and youth in the decision-making process and provide specific entrepreneurship skills and robust training that could help them to reduce their risk of failure;

40. We also encourage Member states in collaboration with the private sector to facilitate access to finance for women and youth entrepreneurs through grants that would enable them start up business enterprises;

41. Advocate for access to wider global market for SMEs and improve cross border Payments settlement systems.
Acknowledgement

42. The Forum expressed its sincere appreciation to H.E. Andry Nirina Rajoelina, President of the Government the Republic of Madagascar, his government and the Ministry of Industry and Trade for the facilities provided beforehand and the hospitality accorded to all delegations during the event.

8th November 2019.