Lack of capacity to negotiate for favourable contracts with multi-national companies has resulted in African countries being fleeced of their natural resources, a capacity building organisation has said.
The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) director of Knowledge and Learning Dr Thomas Munthali told zifmnews.com on the side lines of the 2017 Board of Governors meeting in Accra Ghana that many African states remain poor while foreign investors enjoy their resources hence the need to be trained on how to effectively position themselves for growth.
“With regards to natural resources it’s an issue of having the capacity to negotiate contracts for the benefit the African countries”, he said.
“Often times most African countries do not have the capacity to effectively negotiate contracts when various multi-national companies come into their countries to extract their natural resources”.
He said ACBF was educating countries on how they can benefit from contract negotiations.
“Over the years the ACBF has been coming up with knowledge products on what is there on the ground and putting support in terms of short term training on contract negotiating,” Dr Munthali said.
Finance and Economic Development Ministers and other stakeholders from African countries are meeting in the Ghanaian Capital of Accra to share ideas on financing for development for the continent.
The ACBF has been coordinating capacity development programs worth over $700 million across 45 African countries and eight regional economic communities’ bodies in Africa. zifmnews.com
