Pan-africanist Patrick Lumumba has criticised the tendency of African leaders to look for investments outside of the continent, calling for leaders to treat Africans as key partners in investment.
The Kenya-born lawyer spoke in Asaba on Monday during the Delta State Economic and Investment Summit.
Lumumba decried the undervaluing of Africa’s investment capital, saying the continent’s leaders often look to Europe, Asia and the Americas for investors.
“It is equally tragic that in our interpretation and understanding of who an investor is in the continent of Africa, we still don’t think that fellow Africans are investors,” Lumumba said. “We think, and allow me to be blunt, that our investors must be Malaysians. We think that our investors must be Brazilians. We think that our investors must be Chinese. That is not the case.”
According to him, he and some of his friends have set up the African Investment Movement as part of ways to address the issue.
“We have now visited six countries, and we have told heads of state that even Africans with $100,000 each putting the money together are investors,” he said.
The activist told the gathering, “When a few Africans heard I was coming here from as far as Trinidad and Tobago, they asked me, ‘Why were we not invited?” I said, ‘Next time.’ Because next time, Honourable Governor, I want to see Kenyans here. I want to see Ghanaians here. I want to see Sudanese here. I want to see Ethiopians here. I want to see Moroccans here. I want to see Egyptians here because Africans must begin to believe that they have both the intellectual and financial wherewithal to participate in the development of their continent.
“Because it is only when we do so that our friends of goodwill from Brazil, our friends of goodwill from China, our friends of goodwill from Europe, and our friends of goodwill from the United States of America will begin to believe that the relationship between them and us is symbiotic rather than parasitic.”
He called for easing of visa restrictions among African nations, saying, “I look forward to that day. I look forward to the day when there will be no visa for an African coming to this country, because when you are big, the expectations from you are big.”
