Gandhinagar: President of the African Development Bank.Group (AfDB) Akinwumi Adesina today said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a ‘businessman’ who knows how to strike great deals for his country.

Addressing a press conference in Ahmedabad in connection with the upcoming Annual General Meeting of the AfDB in Gandhinagar here from May 22 to 26, which will be formally inaugurated by PM Modi on May 23, Adesina said, ‘ PM Modi is a businessman. He knows how to strike great deals. He is doing a terrific job for India. Everywhere he goes, he is greeted like a pop star. He is very smart and signs a lot of great deals for India.’

The AfDB president said that he was thankful to PM Modi for what he has done for the bank including announcing a line of credit to the tune of $10 billion and inviting him to hold the AGM of the bank here.

In a lighter vein he also said that he likes the suits and jackets worn by Modi and would expect to have one for him as well.

He also congratulated Modi for the opportunity to hold the AGM of his group in Ahmedabad (Gandhinagar). He clarified that it was not the first time that the AGM was being held outside Africa. ‘It is in fact held outside of Africa every other year. Next year it will be held in Busan in South Korea,’ he said.

Adesina lauded the India-Africa Forum for setting the very important tone for furthering the relationship between India and Africa.

Talking about African growth and the bilateral trade with India, the ArDB president said that the average growth rate of the continent has re-bounced to 3.4% this year. 14 countries had seen above 5% while 18 saw between 3 to 5% growth rate last year. He said that at a time of panic owing to global recession, Africa has managed to keep its head out of water and only those who know how to swim could do that.

‘Africa was the second fastest investment region after Asia and it has got $ 6.5 billion of FDI. It also leads the world in terms with business and regulatory reforms with 30% of such reforms across the world,’ he said.

Terming India as a very important partner he said that the Indian export to Africa has grown to $25b in 2016 from mere $7 b in 2005-06. The bilateral trade has also reached to $31.7b from $ 4.7b during that period. It was expected to cross $100 b mark by 2018. ‘India and Africa are intricately linked together,’ he said

He said that there were huge opportunities for Indian companies in power sector in Africa where a lot of significant work was already underway by Tata and Hinduja groups. ‘There are 645 million Africans with no access to electricity today and one can’t develop in darkness. There was a huge opportunity in this sector. Lots of Indian companies have shown interest in it also,’ he said adding that his bank would invest $12b in next five years in the sector and expect to leverage another $45b to $50 b.

Remembering as to how India could become a global power-house in Food and agriculture in just three years after it refused to sign Nuclear Non Proliferation treaty owing to the political will of the then Prime Minister and the contribution of great Indian geneticist and father of the green revolution M S Swaminathan, Adesina, who had started his international career from Hyderabad, which in his words has become like silicon valley now from a rural belt of his staying days with India becoming a leading global power in ICT sector as well, said that It could help Africa also to become a power in food and agriculture sector.

To a query he said that he expected that a lot of experience sharing at all levels would be done during the upcoming AGM. He also said that the African film Industry, especially the Nigerian film Industry (Nollywood) would also like to learn from Bollywood. The film industry forms a part of service sector which was a big contributor as 50% of the GDP of Gujarat comes from service sector.

He also said that PM Modi was doing fantastic job after setting up of International solar alliance. African countries see a lot of sunshine and India can help in solar energy revolution there. India which has done well in Industrialization can also help Africa with Industrialization. The two countries could do a lot of co-financing in Industry and Infrastructure sector. ‘AfDB was also working closely with Exim Bank of India,’ he said.

The AfDB president said that several measures including setting up of African Domestic Bond Fund and African Investment fund have been taken to increase the inflow of investment and ward off apprehensions about volatility of the currencies of some of the countries of the continent.
To a query regarding exiting of Indian oil and gas majors like Indian Oil and ONGC from Nigeria owing to security reasons, he said that peace and security was fundamental to development. ‘The problem is not unique to Africa but we need to see this issue in perspective. Even India, US, Germany were not secure. Majority of African countries were peaceful and secure.’

About a query regarding attacks on African students in New Delhi some time back, He said that 20000 African students stayed in India as of 2015 which PM Modi said would raise to 50000. Such things should be sorted out with better understanding and respect for each other.

DeshGujarat