President Yoweri Museveni has urged countries under\nCOMESA to tackle under-production and under-consumption to spur economic transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfrica is so rich and yet so poor. There are a number of\nbottlenecks that we need to deal with including market integration,\ninfrastructure such as roads and electricity and other cost pushers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President was today speaking during the Presidential\nPublic-Private Roundtable on what stimuli are available to make Africa prosper\nand setting the tone on the Continental Free Trade Area opportunities for\nAfrica, the future of COMESA, TFTA and AfCFTA. This was shortly after President\nUhuru Kenyatta officially opened the Source 21 COMESA International Trade Fair\nand High Level Business summit currently taking place at the Kenyatta\nInternational Conference Centre in Nairobi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President emphasized that Africa\u2019s fragmented market\nmust be integrated to encourage\nincreased production and consumption of its goods and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He gave an example of China with an internal market\npopulation of 1.3 billion people but still fighting of more external markets\nwhile COMESA\u2019s market is still constrained. He urged leaders to address cost\npushers such as infrastructure including transportation, electricity, human\nresource development, cost of money and politics including avoiding politics of\nidentity if they are to succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President used the example of milk production and\nconsumption in Uganda saying while Milk production has improved, Ugandans are not consuming\nenough. According to the President, Uganda was producing 200 million liters in\n1986 but it has now increased to 2.2 billion liters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said milk\nconsumption was 18 liters per capita per annum but it has gone up to 60 liters\nper capita per annum. This however is still below the recommended 200\nliters per person per annum by World Health Organisation to improve teeth and\nbone health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President said these\nchallenges are part of the reason Africa is not fully exploiting the AGOA\nopportunities offered by the United States of America to export over 6500\nproducts tax free and quota free. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other Heads of\nState included H.E Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory, President of the Republic of\nMauritius, H.E Edgar Lungu, President of Zambia, President Yoweri Museveni and\nhost President Uhuru Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The host\nPresident Uhuru Kenya urged member states to grow their economies through trade\nand improve the lives of their people.\n\n\u201cWe need to come up with innovative and practical strategies to promote\nindustrialization and enhance trade in our region,\u201d he said during\nthe opening ceremony.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Yoweri Museveni has urged countries under COMESA to tackle under-production and under-consumption to spur economic transformation. \u201cAfrica is so rich and yet so poor. There are a number of bottlenecks that we need to deal with including market integration, infrastructure such as roads and electricity and other cost pushers,\u201d he said. The President was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":10132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n