Prime Concar: Africa needs fair trade with the world

What is your opinion on the recent rising interest in Africa shown by Western powers and countries like China, India, and Russia? How does this impact global geopolitics, considering that these countries have different ideologies, interests, and agendas?

First of all, Africa matters; sub-Saharan and northern Africa matter to the rest of the world and everyone living in Africa itself. Unfortunately, Africa’s history of engagement with the rest of the world has not delivered benefits for people living in Africa. So, whoever is engaging with Africa in the 21st century needs to think about how we deliver for the people of Africa. I can’t speak for China, India, or Russia, but what I can speak to is the UK’s commitment to working with sub-Saharan African countries in a win-win way.

Clearly, in the past, African countries have not benefited to the degree that they need to. We need to move forward and change that. One specific area that is so important for African countries, including Tanzania, is having fair access to international financing on good, reasonable, and sustainable terms. The world of international financing has often not been configured in a way that can best serve the interests of Africa. There’s more realization around the world about that now. We need to reform international financial institutions to serve the interests of Africa.

So, are you in support of a pan-African credit rating agency as proposed by the African Union?

We are absolutely in support of African countries being able to access financing on more affordable and sustainable terms. If a pan-African credit agency can be set up that would genuinely deliver that, I’m sure it would get the UK’s support. The other international institutions all need some level of reform.

One thing that the UK is pushing hard on at the moment in this space is the idea of climate-resilient causes. So if a developing country has international loans and is facing a climate-related disaster such as flooding, we can invoke and use the mechanism of pausing the repayment on that loan to divert, at least for a while, those resources to deal with the crisis.

There has been a concern of late that Western aid comes with stringent rules that require developing countries to conform to Western ideals, in the absence of which access to such financial aid is frozen. We are seeing this happening in Uganda. Does the need to conform to Western principles trump the dire requirements of the Ugandan people?

The UK’s position on LGBT+ rights around the world is very clear. We support the rights of all groups to be treated fairly and not face discrimination. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights covers such rights. All minorities, including the LGBT+ community, deserve to be treated equally and not be subject to discrimination. The UK’s position on Uganda’s legislation is clear; we disagree with that legislation, and we do not think it’s in line with meeting human rights commitments and standards around the world.

In the question of how financial institutions respond to such a situation, each institution and government are answerable to their constituents, electorates, and taxpayers, who pay a lot of attention to issues of human rights around the world. The governments need to take into account the position of the people who finance them and give them the platform on which they operate around the world. That means that once certain lines are crossed on human rights, difficult decisions will have to be made.

No one is happy when institutions have to make such tough decisions, but sometimes it is necessary. We hope that things can be resolved on the issue, but we recognise that there are strong feelings on both sides.

UK’s Trade Envoy to Tanzania, Lord Walney, was in the country, where he held meetings with different ministries such as mining and agriculture. Could you tell us the focus of the discussions?

This was the fourth visit of the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Tanzania. So this is positive. In the issue of mining, we all know that Tanzania has lots to offer in terms of minerals that are in high demand now and into the future, such as nickel and other rare earth elements.

The problem in the past for countries like Tanzania has been that the ability and investment brought here have not always enabled Tanzania to extract as much value from its minerals as it should. We need to ensure more of the value stays here and cascades out to the surrounding populations.

The trade envoy also had a meeting with the Agriculture Minister, Hussein Bashe, who explained to us what the challenges are with improving agriculture productivity in Tanzania. So we can listen and see how British investors can help Tanzania deliver that goal of commercializing agriculture while at the same time enabling those who make a livelihood out of agriculture to continue to do so.

The Tanzanian government is grappling with cases filed at international courts by foreign investors, most of which involve the mining sector. What are the sentiments of British investors concerning their confidence in investing in Tanzania under the current administration?

Confidence is growing. There has been a huge shift in the last few years in terms of the government’s general approach to handling the private sector at large and the mining sector specifically. Some very high-profile cases made the international press a few years ago, and some of those cases are still working their way through. However, there are some things that the government can still do that will further increase confidence across the board in terms of investments. Big investors who bring a lot of money to the table need to be given some kind of assurance and be confident that the legal framework is one they can work with, is predictable, and satisfies basic criteria. So there are still some things that the government can do to improve that. I’m confident that over the next few years, some of those issues will be resolved. Some investors would have expected a bit more progress on some of the issues by now, but everyone recognizes that there is a positive direction. Improvements in the business environment will undoubtedly unlock more opportunities.

On agriculture, how is the UK helping Tanzania boost its ability to export value-added products?

A lot of the value of agriculture can be added through SMEs and agro-processing businesses. Access to affordable financing is one of the things that can help such businesses. The UK has a program where we work with Tanzanian banks to provide loan guarantees to the banks for certain kinds of agri-businesses and SMEs, which can then access financing on more affordable terms.

Tanzania needs to increase the percentage of bank loans that are channelled to the agriculture sector, which is currently very low, to boost its ability to add value to exports and also ensure that they are exporting beyond Africa, including to Europe.

How does Tanzania stand to benefit from the preferential Developing Countries Trading Scheme undertaken by the UK government?

It is a very generous and relatively simple scheme. Products made in Tanzania can be exported to Europe tariff-free and quota-free. There is an opportunity for Tanzanian businesses to export more to the UK. The horticulture and garment sectors can all immensely benefit. On rules of origin, countries like Tanzania have a lot more scope to export to the UK through this scheme, even when they include products sourced from outside Tanzania.

On October 30, the British High Commission issued a security warning for its citizens in Tanzania stemming from potential threats posed by the crisis in northern Mozambique in the Cabo Delgado province. How is the UK working with the Tanzanian government to maintain peace and security?

We have active cooperation in areas of security. I wouldn’t describe what was posted on our website as a security warning but as a routine update on our travel advisory. We have a responsibility to advise our citizens on their travel, including security. As part of that, we review our travel advisory, and where necessary, when something changes in the environment, it needs to be reflected in the update. We all know that there has been a problem in northern Mozambique where a radical Islamic group has committed acts of violence that have affected Tanzania as well. That problem has been contained quite well by Tanzanian forces working together with forces from Mozambique, but it hasn’t entirely gone away. There are still some risks in that space. But our travel advisory doesn’t aim to alarm people. However, we do have a responsibility to reflect the overall picture and keep our citizens updated.