UK’s late coming to Africa

At the summit, Johnson used rhetoric to illustrate what he described as his government’s modern partnership with examples of UK businesses like Low Energy Designs, which is installing smart street lighting across Nigeria, Northern Irish firm Lagan which has won the contract to build a business park in Uganda, and Diageo which is investing £167 million to build modern environmentally friendly breweries in Kenya.

“Look around the world today and you will swiftly see that the UK is not only the obvious partner of choice, we’re also very much the partner of today, of tomorrow and decades to come,” he said.

Highlighting what the UK has to offer, the British prime minister said the UK’s unique expertise and innovation in technology, clean growth, infrastructure and finance can feed the continent’s demand for sustainable growth.

Johnson told the African presidents that Brexit would end its preferential treatment for EU migrants and be more open to African migrants.

“You will be pleased to hear that one thing is changing—our immigration system. Change is coming, and our system is becoming fairer and more equal between all our global friends and partners, treating people the same wherever they come from,” he said,  “By putting people before passports, we will be able to attract the best talent from around the world wherever they may be.”

He also promised an end to direct UK state investment in thermal coal mining or coal power plants overseas saying his government would focus on supporting a switch to low-carbon energy sources.

“There is no point in the UK reducing the amount of coal we burn, if we then trundle over to Africa and line our pockets by encouraging African states to use more of it, is there?” “We all breathe the same air; we live beneath the same sky. We all suffer when carbon emissions rise and the planet warms.”

During the summit, Sharma, the UK’s International Development Secretary announced new landmark infrastructure partnerships with Uganda, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and the African Development Bank while a new British facility to generate billions of pounds of private sector investment for sustainable energy, transport and telecommunications projects in other African countries was also unveiled.

Billion Pound investments

Ahead of the summit, up to £6.5 billion of commercial deals had already been signed by British companies to deliver jobs, growth and investment across the U.K and Africa according to the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Department for International Trade.

Sharma said the UK was also committed to boosting investment in green, quality infrastructure such as solar energy. He said the UK will partner with Uganda, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya to design a new facility to plan, and deliver support finance to a range of infrastructure projects across Africa that are attractive to businesses and investors.

“Investing in quality infrastructure enables children to travel to school and parents to go to work to provide for their families,” Sharma said, “It lets people keep food in fridges and provides light so children can do their homework at night.”

He added: “It also powers factories, phones and computers to connect people and grow businesses. It is the difference between surviving and thriving.”

Sharma also announced an expansion of the Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) Cities and Infrastructure for Growth programme to Ghana, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, which helps UK businesses invest in quality, resilient infrastructure, boost access to reliable and affordable power and create construction jobs.

Visiting political and business leaders were later treated to pomp as they attended a reception at Buckingham Palace as guests of the Duke of Cambridge. But such pageantry might not guarantee success Britain once had on the continent.

****