The Eighth AGOA Forum Opens in Nairobi

(AU Monitor)--The United States-sub-Saharan ministerial conference of the eighth African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) forum was officially opened today the 5 August 2009 at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi, Kenya by Mwai Kibaki, President of the host country.

In his address, President Kibaki, mentioned, among other things, that despite the provisions put in place by the AGOA agreement, African countries still face many challenges and obstacles while exporting their products to the United States of America. He also added that there are few Americans who invest in Africa under the AGOA initiative and therefore called on American investors to increase their investments in the continent.

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led the American delegation of more than 250 officials including agriculture secretary Thomas J. Vilsack and trade representative Ambassador Ronald Kirk. In her remarks, Secretary Clinton reiterated President Obama’s commitments to doubling foreign aid by 2014 and that Africa could count on America as a friend and partner. ‘Good governance equals good business’ were Clinton’s words to tell African leaders that for the continent to develop itself it has to embrace good governance by including all stakeholders especially women who are the backbone of the African economy.

It was, however, the speech of Raila Odinga, Kenyan Prime Minister, which emphasised the need for African countries to increase trade between themselves by removing artificial boundaries that were set at the Berlin conference in 1884. ‘It is easier for a Western businessman to come to Kenya than a Kenyan businessman to go to Nigeria because of visa restrictions’, he added. Odinga traced most of the problems that Africa is facing from the independence era when Africa fell into the hands of dictators the time it was trying to get rid of what he calls four dangers of human kind : ‘hunger, illiteracy, diseases and bad governance’.

The AGOA was signed into law on 18 May 2000 as Title 1 of the Trade and Development Act of 2000 by the then US president Bill Clinton. The Act offers tangible incentives for 39 African countries to continue their efforts to open their economies and build free markets.

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