Sputnik brings you all the most recent information, major events, heroes and views, including breaking news, images, videos, analyses, and features.

Kenyan President William Ruto Advocates for Fair Financial Architecture

16:34, 19 May 2024

Maxim Grishenkin

Writer

All materials

The East African leader's remarks came at the 2024 Africa CEO Forum in Rwanda, which brought together more than 2,000 participants, including heads of state and heads of international and non-profit organizations, to discuss the private sector's driving role in the continent's development.

Sputnik

Kenyan President William Ruto highlighted the need for a reformation of the international financial architecture to better accommodate the realities and aspirations of developing nations, particularly in Africa.

He emphasized that the current multilateral development banks, established in 1945, did not foresee the emergence of countries like Kenya, which has since grown to become the seventh-largest economy in Africa, potentially the sixth.

"It is time that we have a new conversation," Ruto declared. "The lenders are important, but the borrowers are important, too. We must have a candid conversation so that we have an organization that is democratic, that is representative, so that we all have an equal voice in what happens."

Ruto pointed to the recent International Development Association meeting, where Kenya and other African countries put forth propositions for fairer and more balanced representation ot the boards of multilateral development banks.

Sub-Saharan Africa

'World's Development Boat is Leaking': AfDB Chief Warns of Imbalances in Global Financial System

29 October 2023, 13:50

He argued that the current system disproportionately burdens African countries with higher borrowing costs, citing Kenya’s recent experience in the financial markets, where it secured funding at an interest rate of over 10%, compared to just 1% for other nations.

"When we say that Africa is paying five times more, it's not just talk; it's a reality we live through every day, and that's why we're pushing every lever to make sure that concessional resources are available so that we can pull countries out of distress and we can do more for our citizens and do more for development, so that countries don't spend more in servicing debt than in paying for medicine for their citizens," the leader remarked.

Furthermore, Ruto made an appeal to make the African Union (AU) more effective and focused, identifying three critical areas for the AU’s attention: economic diplomacy, peace and security, and infrastructure development.

"We need to refocus the Africa Union so that it does our economic diplomacy. Number one: trade and investment. Number two, it becomes our instrument for peace and security. And number three is to make sure that AU focuses on matters of infrastructure," he concluded, adding that it includes physical infrastructure like roads and railways as well as digital infrastructure to unlock the continent’s potential.