Some participants at the ongoing 47th yearly general meeting of the African Development Bank (AfDB)  in Arusha, Tanzania, said on Wednesday that the demands of globalisation made it imperative for Africans to make their economies competitive.

The stakeholders, drawn from across the continent, emerging economies and global financial institutions, according to The Tide source, submitted that it was defeatist for Africans to blame others for the failure of their economies.

Also, the Coordinator, Community-Based Agricultural Development Programme, Jacob Vanco, has appealed to the Adamawa Government to pay the unsettled balance of N90.597 million counterpart funds.

Vanco, who made the appeal while speaking with newsmen in Yola, said that the funds would facilitate the smooth implementation of the programme scheduled to close in December 2012.

“I want to appeal to the state government and the beneficiary local governments to support the programme by paying their counterpart funds.

“Five of the nine beneficiary local government councils of Toungo, Girei, Hong, Madagali and Numan are to pay a total balance of N65.597 million.

“The state government also has arrears of N25 million covering from 2007 to 2011, having paid N19.218 million in 2006,” Vanco said.

The coordinator said that Jada, Maiha, Mubi South and Demsa councils had settled their payments totalling N6.756 million.

He explained that the programme, which commenced in 2006, was in operation in five states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna and Kwara.

According to him, the six-year programme which commenced in 2006 was supposed to have ended in 2011 but was extended by one year to December 2012.

AfDB was funding 81 per cent of the entire project, while the three tiers of government and the benefitting communities were expected to contribute three per cent, six per cent, 11 per cent and one per cent respectively, he added.

He noted that the programme was designed to contribute to national food security and increase access to rural infrastructure in the five participating states.

However, the Chairman at one of the seminars on emerging issues in African economies, Nkosana Moyo, described as disheartening, the usual conclusions that Africans don’t understand themselves, in spite of the accepted notion “we know what we want”.

Moyo, a former Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the AfDB, said African countries needed right policies that would make it more productive and competitive.

“We cannot depend on foreign investors to come in with everything. Investors always want to take an upper hand and we end up losing.

“Governments should concentrate on making the right policies to protect national and African interests, otherwise outsiders will go away with our wealth,” Moyo said.

Executive Chairman of Infotech Investment Group in Tanzania, Ali Mufuruki, said African governments could not justify the huge budget spent on policy formulation in the face of the sliding character of the continent’s economies.

Mufuruki explained that Africans should re-evaluate their approach to development programmes that would complement foreign investments.

On current trends in global trade, Mufuruki asked: “Are we ready to harvest the rising commodity prices or are we waiting for another lost opportunity?

“All policies we make must be based on empirical ground and not on perceptions by other people,” Mufuruki said, adding: “Africans haven’t prepared themselves for what is happening in the global economy.”

Director and Head of Global Market at the Standard Bank of South Africa, Terence Sibiya, said it was disappointing for primary commodities to still dominate Africans exports.

“We have to break this huge cycle and come up with innovative instruments to safeguard Africa’s interests if we are to eliminate poverty in this continent,” Sibiya said.

Njuguna Ndungu of Central Bank of Kenya, also called for the creation of strong institutions to lead the continent out of poverty and break Africa’s over dependence on aid.”

”Emerging issues have been with us for a very long time. We need to roll out public investment in an innovative way and develop intra-African trade.

“Poverty is a product of institutional failure. Have we changed the development paradigm?  Ndungu asked.

AfDB organised the session to provide an overview of some of the significant forces that could shape Africa’s future.

It was also meant to explore critical public policy choices that could be taken at country and regional level.