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Ouattara is showing competent
leadership next door
By Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko
March 20, 2014
My new job as a consultant on Africa’s governance and economic
environment allows me to analyse deeper than I ever used to in
the past, as head of a Ghana-focused public policy think tank,
the performance of various governments and developments in
various countries across the African continent. And, I must say
that I have been most impressed with the work being done
currently by the 72-year-old leader of Côte d’Ivoire, Alassane
Ouattara, especially on the economy of the West African country.
In 2011, the year that Ouattara finally had the chance to lead
the country he won the right to lead in the violently disputed
2010 election, the economy suffered a negative growth rate of
-4.7%. By 2012, GDP growth had shot up remarkably to 9.8%, and
in 2013, growth was estimated, again, at around 9%. The country
now aims for double-digit economic growth in 2014-2015. Driving
these impressive growth rates is a surge in both foreign
investment inflows and public spending, which is hitting 7% of
GDP this year, according to the IMF.
With Ouattara, what you see is a nation with a plan and a leader
committed to follow that plan and a people desperate to see that
change manifested. The international image of Côte d’Ivoire and
its competent leader can be summed up in the words of Wayne
Camard, the IMF’s resident representative in the country: “The
president has a clear idea where he wants to go…” he says.
I will indulge Ghanaians and Sierra Leoneans, especially, to
look closer at the kind of competent leadership that the man
next door is offering to a country that, three years ago, was
caught up in an arms conflict. Tellingly, most of the companies,
which moved to Ghana from Côte d’Ivoire, are moving right back.
After a decade of conflict and turmoil, Côte d’Ivoire is back
and reclaiming its old position as the regional hub for West
Africa, a geographical area which is likely to boast of a
population of half a billion people by 2030 and a fast-growing
middle-class.
The Ouattara government’s objective, which was clearly laid out
in the highly impressive “Invest in Côte d’Ivoire Forum (ICI)
2014” held earlier this year in Abidjan, is to mount a
large-scale mobilisation of private-sector support for economic
transformation. Ouattara is keen on diversifying the economy to
reduce the country’s reliance on cocoa and coffee and he is,
rightly so, putting a lot more focus on the agribusiness value
chain.
First things first. The President knows he needs energy to power
his economic recovery and transformation and has embarked on an
aggressive energy programme that seeks to double the country’s
electricity capacity by 2020. This is linked to his goal of
getting Côte d’Ivoire to join the ranks of emerging market
economies by the same year, 2020. Already, in the last 2 years
alone, he has been able to attract, through a very overt
investment drive, a US$7 billion worth of investment to the
country’s energy sector, unashamedly supporting indigenous power
companies to win huge power plant contracts.
The Ivorian President puts his aspirations for his country this
way: “We are striving to be the sub-region’s hub, the entry
point to West Africa, a market of over 300 million individuals.
Reaching this goal entails forging strong, sustainable
partnerships with economic operators who can seize the
opportunities created by growth.”
A major priority of the Ouattara administration is to empower
the private sector and improve the ability for entrepreneurs and
investors to do business in Cote d’Ivoire. The good news is
that, it is working, at least, going by the multi-billion dollar
deals that were struck during the three-day ‘Invest in Côte
d’Ivoire Forum (ICI) 2014’, which took place at the end of
January. The 2014 Forum focused on the leading role the private
sector must play in making the country a regional business hub,
something Ghana has been saying for some years now but doing
little to achieve a convergence between talk and walk.
On the other hand, according to a recent international report,
Doing Business 2014, Côte d’Ivoire is among the countries that
implemented the highest number of reforms in improving the
business climate in the 2012-2013 period. We must ask ourselves,
after a decade of conflict and turmoil, what has inspired Côte
d’Ivoire to come back boldly to reclaim the economic leadership
position in West Africa? What stopped its neighbours from
surging ahead when that country was on its knees?
Like Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire is blessed with a wealth of natural
resources, a strategically advantageous location, a pleasant
climate and a level of infrastructure, though far from global
standard, is unrivaled in the West African region. Ghana was
becoming more stable and democratic as its neighbor struggled.
There is something intangible but real about leadership that
citizens cannot afford to ignore. For example, Ouattara’s
unfolding success speaks volumes to us. It tells us that
leadership is key to the success of a country, even if that
success has to be driven by the private sector. It tells us that
track record matters a lot when choosing a leader, especially
for a country still young in the process of strengthening its
institutions of state.
Born in 1942, Ouattara is certainly not a young man. But, what
he brings to the leadership of his nation is experience and
maturity. In spite of his age, he has the confidence and
conviction to seek a second term next year and he is likely to
win because the people of Côte d’Ivoire are likely to look at
his performance rather than his birth certificate. He has
managed to keep together the party he has led since 1999, the
Rally of the Republicans (RDR), and built in the process some
useful political alliances.
An economist by profession, he has had many ups and downs in the
politics of his country, becoming a victim of a very negative
ethnocentric nationality issue, which barred him from running
for office, becoming a major factor in the coup of 1999, to set
the country on that long bumpy ride of instability.
As he prepares for re-election in October 2015, his biggest
challenge now is how to reconcile the country, undertake the
necessary electoral reforms, enforce security, take the guns off
the streets, and guarantee the stability that is needed to keep
the economy going.
So far, what President Alassane Ouattara has shown is that a lot
can be achieved with a leadership that is visionary, focused,
decisive, and committed. We should celebrate such leaders and
challenge those who are falling short to do more to emulate and
surpass.
By Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko
March 20, 2014
The author is CEO of Global Dynamix Consult, an Africa-focused
consultancy firm based in the UK.
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