African MPs urged to end raw material exports

Uganda’s Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Marksons Oboth, has urged African legislators to push for value addition and end the continent’s reliance on exporting raw materials.

Oboth was speaking on Tuesday at the opening of a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Africa Region seminar in Entebbe. Legislators from Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Uganda are attending.

“Exporting raw materials does not solve our development challenges as a continent,” he told delegates.

He said Africa’s problem was not a lack of wealth but a failure to turn that wealth into prosperity for its people.

“We extract and export raw materials while processing, manufacturing, employment and profits largely accumulate elsewhere. This can only be reversed by strong legislation in our respective countries,” he said.

“Africa will not secure economic sovereignty unless its legislators take the lead in making sure our raw materials benefit our own people, not only the rich countries,” he added.

The capacity development seminar is being held at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel until Friday. Its theme is “From Extraction to Transformation: Parliamentary Leadership in Securing Africa’s Resource Wealth for Sustainable Development”.

Oboth said legislators were responsible for leading the change. He urged them to use their legislative, budgetary and oversight powers to improve accountability in how natural resources are managed.

“Scrutinise extraction contracts, and enforce local content laws in order to close the loopholes that allow illicit financial flows,” he said.

He said communities should have a say in decisions affecting their livelihoods and share in the benefits of extraction in their areas. He added that they should be protected from displacement and environmental damage.

Oboth used coffee and crude oil as examples. He said natural resources delivered their full benefit only when they were processed into finished goods that create industries, jobs and greater market value.

“Beyond cultivation and extraction, these products offer value in processing, packaging, marketing and wealth creation,” he said.

He credited President Yoweri Museveni with leading Uganda’s value addition drive. He pointed to government policies that he said promote local processing of coffee, maize, sugar and tea, restrict exports of unprocessed minerals and protect local content in the oil and gas sector.

But he warned that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) would not reach its full potential unless member states put value addition first and relied less on raw exports.

Naome Kabasharira, who chairs the CPA’s Uganda branch, said the seminar came at a time when natural resources were driving economic change across the region.

“As parliamentarians, we are acutely aware that the mere existence of natural resources does not automatically translate into broad development and improved livelihoods for our citizens,” she said.

She said the seminar would look at four areas:

• parliamentary oversight of extraction contracts and licensing
• local content laws that give citizens a stake through jobs, skills, enterprise and ownership
• value addition and beneficiation
• measures to curb illicit financial flows and aggressive tax avoidance

Kabasharira called illicit financial flows and aggressive tax avoidance major threats to Africa’s development. She said weak governance, opaque transactions and profit shifting took away money governments needed for healthcare, education, infrastructure and social development.