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Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has urged African countries to be self-reliant and rid themselves from excessive dependence on external assistance.

Mudavadi said Africa should focus on putting in place necessary infrastructure and implement reforms that will increase exports and shares in global trade.

He called for empowerment and strengthening of all national financial institutions to allow them channel funding to sustainable investments effectively.

“We must empower our local financial institutions. This will require new governance structures and enhanced capacities, at the national, regional and continental levels,” he said.

He made the remarks yesterday in Nairobi during the launch of 2023 edition of Africa’s development dynamics report under African Union Commission specialised technical committee on finance, monetary affairs, economic planning and integration.

Mudavadi held that African countries should take concrete actions to overcome the recent slump and unleash the wave of sustainable investments needed to achieve these ambitious goals. For instance, he said, sovereign access to cheap capital is key and the international community has to live up to its promises.

“Africa must counter negative risk perceptions by both foreign and African investors. We should encourage and enable risk assessments that are unbiased, thus making available risk mitigation strategies unknown to investors,” he urged.

Mudavadi noted that dependable risk assessment must be evidence-based and this cannot happen without better and reliable data.

“We (Africa) should strive to be innovative and continue to actively pursue new methodologies of appraising risks in African countries. Establishment of an African credit rating agency is imperative,” he affirmed.