Ruto warns against foreign capital, urges Africa to fund its own growth

President William Ruto has called on the African continent to harness its own financial capital to develop much-needed infrastructure to spur growth and development.

The President warned that continued reliance on foreign capital is hindering Africa's ability to deliver on key infrastructure projects, including roads, ports, airports, and oil refineries, among others.

"As the saying goes, he who pays the piper calls the tune," he said when he opened the first The Africa We Build Summit in Nairobi on Thursday

He went on: "Our ambitions will remain unrealised if we continue to depend on external capital whose primary interest is securing raw materials for their own industries."

The summit is co-hosted by Kenya and the African Finance Corporation (AFC) a continental financial institution with headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria. The organisation has also opened a regional office in Nairobi.

Present at the summit were President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, AFC President and CEO Samaila Zubairu, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, and Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote, among others.

While calling for the strengthening of regional development finance institutions, President Ruto also urged African countries to build robust national finance mechanisms to drive infrastructure development.

The President cited Kenya's National Infrastructure Fund and the proposed Sovereign Wealth Fund as examples of innovative solutions in raising capital.

"Through these instruments, we aim to mobilise public and private, as well as domestic and foreign capital to fund major priority projects worth Ksh5. trillion ($40 billion) over the next decade," he said.

The President pointed out that the summit is timely as it takes place on the backdrop of global economic shocks as a result of the Gulf War.

"Africa today produces approximately 10 million barrels of oil per day, which is about 10% of global output. Yet, paradoxically, we remain net importers of petroleum products to the tune of 120 million metric tonnes annually at a cost of about $90 billion," he said.

As a result, he said, the East African nations are discussing the development of a common oil refinery at Tanga port in Tanzania.

"We are ⁠going to develop a joint refinery in Tanga to ⁠benefit all of us," he said during a roundtable session at the summit.

President Museveni said the region is endowed with financial resources to undertake world-class infrastructure projects.

"If we constrain consumption, we have enough local capital locked away in our pension funds to finance these projects," he said.

President Ruto also called for the deepening of regional integration so that countries can benefit from complementary natural resources they are endowed with.

"These must be connected through infrastructure - roads, railways, ports, and electricity grids - so that raw materials and intermediate goods can move freely across borders," he said.

Further, the President called for the establishment of regional platforms for regional development, noting that the European Union began in 1951 as the European Coal and Steel Community.

He explained that the East African region is richly endowed with renewable energy and minerals driving the global energy transition, including copper, cobalt, nickel, manganese, graphite, lithium, and rare earth elements.

"We must now move deliberately to pool these resources and position ourselves competitively in global green manufacturing," he said.