President Yoweri Museveni has advised African countries to collectively reject the blanket ban on investment in fossil fuels by Western countries.
In an article about Africa-UK trade cooperation, Museveni said the ban is a clear indication of double standards by the West.
The president’s statement comes a day after Uganda, Tanzania and global oil giants Total and CNOOC reached the Final Investment Decision on Uganda’s oil sector.
However, this signing yesterday came at a time when the world is increasingly moving away from fossil fuels in favour of renewable energy.A number of countries in the West have already given dates when their economies will completely move away from petroleum products for not only their energy needs but also for their automobiles. over 100 national governments, cities, states and major businesses recently signed a declaration to end the sale of internal combustion engines by 2035 in leading markets worldwide and 13 nations also committed to ending the sale of fossil fuel-powered heavy-duty vehicles by 2040.
“Collective pressure should be brought to bear on western countries to reconsider their blanket ban on fossil fuel investment in Africa. Ruling out funds for gas and carbon capture while encouraging it in Europe smacks of double standards. It forces poverty on Africans whilst doing nothing to increase access to power, reduce electricity costs, or wean dependence from heavy fuels such as diesel,” Museveni says.
Meanwhile, Museveni said that for Africa to benefit from international trade, tempts to cajole it into lopsided bilateral trading terms must be rejected. He gave an example of the European Union economic partnership agreement that required African countries to open up to Europe without Europe opening up to Africa.
“These are not partnerships, but supply contracts: Africa is a raw commodities producer, a role she has sadly played since 1885, without the market access required to provide an incentive to develop beyond… Boosting employment across the continent requires not only the lowering of tariffs on African raw commodities for export, but also for processing and manufacturing. From animal feeds to cement and steel, from mobile phones to mRNA vaccine development and electric vehicle production, Africa is proving itself the final frontier for industrialization. Any trade negotiations must consider how FDI into Africa will create additional jobs,” Museveni said.
The President added that the restrictions on visas for Africans studying and seeking to do business in the West must also be discussed. He said if Europeans are free to roam and trade as they please in Africa, it is unacceptable that African nations accept the highest hurdles of entry into other countries both for goods and people.
Just like Europe negotiates for entry rights to non-EU countries for their citizens collectively, Museveni said, Africa should do the same for its citizens. Museveni recognized the UK for being the first non-African entity to sign a Memorandum of Understating with the African continental free trade area-AFCFTA “For the AU, it offers our continent – a USD 3 trillion market – more bargaining power with a developed country in the global economy such as Britain, which post-EU departure has revealed new-found determination to build positive trade relations back in Africa.
“The inheritance of colonialism has meant our countries do not trade as they should. In the past, it has caused us to look outwards alone. Our infrastructure is geared toward extraction of commodities and export, whilst our intra-continental trade is the least developed in the world,” Museveni said.
