By Christiana Ekpa
Speakers and Heads of African Parliaments last night demanded that, there should be legislations that will ensure that borrowing by African countries are tied to specific projects and programmes.
This was just as they stressed the need African countries to take steps to free themselves from lender nations and organisations, while taking appropriate steps to develop local institution and inter African trade.
The Speakers and Heads of African Parliament, they want African parliaments to enact laws that will put in place serious measures against military intervention in governance on the Africa continent.
In his closing remarks, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila said debt cancellation will free up the needed resources to develop the African continent, adding that debt burden has stagnated development in Africa.
He said they were already talking to internal money lenders, pointing out that “if we speak as one, our voice will be more clearer than if we speak as individual nations”.
In a 17 point communique at the end of their two day conference in Abuja, the Speakers said there should strong punitive measures for unconstitutional overthrow of governments on the African continent, saying “African parliaments must stand together to resist military coups in all parts of the continent and jointly advocate for more punitive measures, collectively as defenders of our democracies”.
They said further that African countries should institutionalise mandatory regular reporting and publication of public debt reports, adding that there should be legislation requiring approval from the legislature on any borrowing, as well as limits and properly documented plans for borrowing tied to specific projects and programmes.
The Speakers also said that African parliaments must ensure proper oversight
to proactively reduce Africa’s debt profile while there should be greater oversight and increased budgetary allocations to ensure enhanced agricultural productivity and building of internal capacity for food production to eliminate Africa’s import dependeny.
According to them, legislation is required to enhance farmers’ access to inputs and credit, including institutionalising minimum budget allocation to the agricultural sector across member states.
They also stressed the need to develop mechanisms to increase coverage and
scope of social protection to aid citizens who live in poverty, especially those affected by the recent pandemic. Legislative interventions are needed to ensure that across our continent, we cater to the needs of the poorest and weakest.
The Speakers also call for the Development of quality health care and pharmaceutical industries and infrastructure for domestic production of health products, while parliaments must legislate to foster
advancement of healthcare technology and ensure adequate budgets for a healthy continent.
They said further that Legislations are needs to be put in place to strengthen the parliaments for effective oversight responsibilities, while there is the need to build internal capacity to enhance the legislature’s ability to administer proper oversight functions.
They call for support for operationalisation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) to develop competitive regional and global value chains, enhance domestic resource mobilisation, including effective public private partnership frameworks for infrastructure delivery.
The Speakers of African Parliaments wants the Establishment of a budget frameworks for effective oversight of public debt and risk
management, while approving every external/domestic borrowing and monitor the implementation of such loans.
They said borrowing frameworks should reflect the country’s debt carrying capacity to ensure sustainability.
They insisted that debt cancellation from international financial institutions is required to enable African countries to invest more revenue in social protection programme while the Conference of Speakers should press for this as a collective entity.
They also called for the building of internal capacity and local industries to enable local production and processing of raw materials for export, while building resilience against external and internal shocks, eliminating dependency on external institutions, lenders and grantors.
