Museveni roots for integration at global investment summit

The inaugural Global African Investment Summit opened yesterday in the Rwandan capital Kigali, with political leaders and business executives agreeing that Africa is on the right trajectory of development.

The summit, however, noted that more efforts such as strengthening of economic integration to create more markets are still required.

The summit, held in Africa for the first time with previous editions held in London, was attended by President Museveni and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, who during an interactive panel, reiterated the vast potential for investment that Africa has.

President Museveni, during the panel, indicated that while there are still some structural bottlenecks such as underdevelopment of infrastructure, “Africa is the place to be right now.”

“Business logic means two players, that is the producer and the consumer but the two are linked by infrastructure,” Mr Museveni said.

He reiterated that regional economic integration is the only way to cure the problems of small markets.

The summit sought to build discussions on the creation of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) that seeks to integrate Africa’s three major regional economic blocs— the East African Community, Southern African Development Community, and the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). TFTA was launched last year.

The Monitor

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