We have only ourselves to blame– President Kagame on global trade in Africa
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00:00 If you look at the percentage of global trade that Africa does, it's very low.
00:10 In fact, Ms. Songwe, what is it, 3%? 3% isn't it, of global trade.
00:16 That has to change. 3% is almost negligible.
00:21 How does the creation of one African market strengthen our position on that global trade stage?
00:28 Numbers are clear. The benefits are clear. What needs to be done is clear.
00:38 So, I think we have only ourselves to blame. If we just don't do what we know...
00:46 Only ourselves to blame.
00:51 It increases the volume of everything that we want to do. We talked about employment,
00:59 it's about the volume of business, it's the money.
01:07 So, we are the kind of horses that are very thirsty.
01:16 We are taken to the well and some horses decide to drink the water,
01:21 others have excuses and they end up dying of thirst.
01:27 I think that is what it is.
01:30 That's a beautiful analogy.
01:32 We can't keep having excuses for decades.
01:38 It's not because we lack information.
01:42 The data has been put there, we have all seen it.
01:46 The statements have been made by all of us, very clear to the point.
01:55 So, that's why on one hand it is simple to see the answer.
02:02 I don't know why it remains difficult to just go ahead and implement what we are capable of
02:11 and get the benefits we want.
02:15 So, it's no longer the numbers that are not known,
02:18 it's no longer the problem we face as a continent that we don't know.
02:30 So, really it's a short of words as to what to explain in terms of our problem.
02:40 It seems we enjoy problems.
02:47 So, if that is the case then…
02:52 We should stop enjoying problems.
02:54 Absolutely, especially when you have answers.
02:57 One of the answers is just what is being discussed here
03:01 and what the African leaders, the political business leaders have come to put together
03:09 that we need to move on.
03:10 But from your vantage point, does it feel like change is happening?
03:14 Are we in a new dawn as some people are calling it?
03:18 Change is happening.
03:19 It's only happening slowly when we are capable of moving faster.
03:27 But change is happening.
03:28 But we can't just talk about change happening
03:34 without examining the very factors that actually help us bring about this change
03:41 and also see what is it that delays us in obtaining the change that we are capable of
03:51 and that we want.
03:53 But change is there.
03:54 In fact, the very fact that we are here talking about this,
04:02 the head of state champion who put all of this together
04:05 and the team of the African Union Commission led by the chairperson,
04:12 having worked on this and made sure that it is a priority on the agenda of the African Union
04:22 and all the good work that has given us the kind of information that we need,
04:30 shows that some level of sense of urgency is coming in
04:37 and that we just need to seize the moment and not waste time.
04:41 Amen to that.
04:43 Thank you.
04:45 [Applause]
04:46 [Music]