The director general of World Trade Organization Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has advised African Continent to correct the vaccine inequity that is so evident in the world today.

The director general as one of the panelists on United Bank For Africa’s (UBA) Africa to the World event on Zoom said solving economic problems in Africa  is first and foremost giving Africa health space to breathe  by providing fiscal stimulus.

Health problems must be thoroughly dealt with while the need for diversification is also an important tool to steer the economy of the continent. Countries that are doing well at the moment are countries with diversified economies she added.

”Also, take advantage of African continental free trade area by trading more with each other and more on outside. If we want the continental free trade area to work, we must make goods, services and people flow across borders.” she ended.

Rwandan President,  Paul Kagame  who was also on the panel spoke on security and peace .He said ” Africa should invest more time and resources in supporting one another.The mindset of of people must be worked on . The root cause of the problem of insecurity must be addressed . Good politics he said must  also be put in place  to bring about a genuine result”.

On vaccine nationalism or inequity as he called it, World Health Organization director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom said efforts are in top gear to ensure adequate number of vaccines  get to Africa and Africans.

It is all about co-operation. World leaders must come together to face this common enemy by adequately sharing vaccine to the African continent and not see it as charity  which is also in the interest of the world .

”There is also the need  to increase the production of vaccines which US  and other countries are strongly in support”.

As for how to enhance internet connectivity on the fourth stage of industrial revolution which is the digital revolution in Africa, Managing Director, International Finance Corporation, Makthar Diop said ” our success in Africa is patchy. We need to seek a collective wisdom that will drive and present solutions to move Africa forward . And doing more systematically, we need to document , systematize and present what has made something a success”.

He said by 2023, 300,000 terabytes  of submarine cables will be on the continent so capacity will not be the problem but the people he concluded.

The panel was anchored by the chairman of United Bank For Africa, Tony Elumelu in  celebrating Africa day 2021 themed ”Arts, culture and Heritage: Levers for building the Africa we want”.