President William Ruto Friday urged African commercial and development finance banks to dedicate more financial resources towards the continent’s green and environmentally friendly industrialisation.
He said at a time of competitive and volatile geo-economic landscape and reconfiguration of global trade policies, Africa needs to look inward to its financial institutions for solutions to address climate change and accelerate development.
“In this fractured world order, Africa must rethink its strategies and explore how to strengthen and leverage its own institutions to compensate for the shortfall in external investment,” he said at State House, Nairobi, on Friday.
He made the remarks during a high-level consultative meeting on the Africa Green Industrialisation Initiative (AGII), which he convened in his capacity as chair of the Committee of African Union Heads of State and Government on Climate Change.
Participants included Prof Pierre Moukoko, head of African Union Reform Implementation Unit, who represented the African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.
Others were Africa Continental Free Trade Area Secretary-General Wamkele Mene, Africa50 CEO Alain Ebobissé, Executive Vice-President at Africa-Import Bank Haytham Elmaayergi and Equity Bank Group Managing Director and CEO James Mwangi.