Wednesday 26 May 2021 - UBA Group Chairman and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Mr. Tony Elumelu led other Africa international leaders in celebrating this year’s UBA Africa Day. Being a Pan African bank of choice, UBA has since been celebrating this day for years, the bank coelebrates this day by decorating their offices with traditional African themes and even staff are encouraged to research and represent various African heritage through clothing, food and aesthetics.
UBA then went further to introduce UBA Africa Day conversations with its third edition of its annual discussions this year, UBA invites reknown African leaders familiar with the continent heritage to discuss various social, economic and political issues impacting Africa as a continent and this year’s panel included African leaders such as Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation(WTO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation(WHO), Rwanda’s President H.E. Paul Kagame and Makhtar Sop Diop, Managing Director, International Finance Corporation(IFC). Taking into consideration the current challenges of COVID 19 it has taken further safety measures by conducting these conversations online where the entire African continent can follow through, learn and engage in the conversations.
Speaking during the conversation which mostly featured the effects of Covid 19, President Kagame said that Covid 19 has affected many African countries economically due to lockdowns and therefore urged called other African leaders to come together and discuss ways of moving to the next stage. “The effect of Covid 19 has both been felt by the government and private sector. We should learn from this shock to invest more of our budget in our national health system. This is not the last global crisis and the next one should not catch Africa unprepared”.
President Kagame added, “I think it is important for African leaders to come together and discuss this crisis, we can discuss about the causes of conflicts and poverty. It is not about who is doing this or that, I think mutual respects is the best form of relationship between Africa and rest of the world, we talk of problems in Africa, deprivation and poverty, but this is not our identity”.
UBA Group Chairman and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation – Tony Elumelu said "We have seen how our youth despite Covid 19 have leveraged their talents expertise network and technology to create wealth and support the communities they live. We must therefore make sure that the gains these youths have made are not erased".
On his part, The World Health Organization Director Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that WHO is working day in day out to bring immediate solutions for the equitable distribution of vaccine doses. However, it is clear that Africa cannot rely solely on the importation of vaccines from the rest of the world. We must build capacity not only for Covid vaccines but for other vaccines and medical products’.
He added, more than anything else, the pandemic has demonstrated that health is not luxury item or simply an outcome of development but its human right and a prerequisite for social and economic development.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said that if Africa wants to recover from Covid epidemic, the discussion of restricting debt is most important and giving Africa economies space of breathe so that they can invest only in the health sector but also on economic sector and we are going to recover. ‘It is important for the world that we reverse this vaccine inequality and Africa benefits from it. We cannot recover sustainability without it. So we have to fight for it, whether by getting more vaccines in or by manufacturing our own, said Iweala.
Africa Day has been celebrated since 1963 on May 25th across the African continent and worldwide. The day was inaugurated by the Organisation of African Unity, in celebration of the unity, diversity and beauty of Africa and its people and the theme for this year was ‘Bringing Africa to the World’
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