President William Ruto has called on the United States to invest in Africa.
He urged the US to review its economic partnership from that of a trade destination for the market of manufactured goods to that of an investment partnership.
Ruto spoke on Thursday during the US-Africa Summit on ‘The Future of Africa’s Trade and Investment’.
He further urged the West to take advantage of Africa’s population and the prospects under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is on the cusp of taking off.
Ruto also acknowledged the availability of labour and green energy potential in Africa to drive prosperity on a global scale.
The President took the opportunity to market Kenya as one of the most favourable investment destinations for the US, attributing its competitive advantage to a maturing constitutional democracy and well-developed financial and commercial ecosystem.
At the same time, US President Joe Biden announced billions of dollars in new funding for Africa.
"The United States is 'all in' on Africa's future," President Biden told the over 40 African leaders attending the summit.
He also spoke optimistically of improved links with Africa and announced $55 billion (Sh6,765,000,000) in new funding for the continent over the next three years.
This included $100m (Sh12,291,000,000) for clean energy projects.
He told the gathering in Washington that when Africa succeeded, so too did the United States.
Ruto was later hosted at a high-level round table at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Management, on innovating, accelerating, and scaling the Konza Technopolis also known as the Silicon Savannah.
It brought together corporate executives and stakeholders across various sectors.
"During the meeting, the leaders committed to work with Kenya to advance space technology, to collaborate towards the establishment of robust Kenya Creative Industries and to work with Kenya towards Climate Innovations and carbon trading technologies," Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed said.
They further made a commitment to mobilizing the network to extend research for the ethical and responsible deployment of ocean-based Carbon Dioxide Reduction.
The round table also committed to direct air capture, carbon products, and waste-to-energy solutions.
Further, there was a commitment to host the Kauffman Fellow Africa Venture Capital Summit in Kenya on September 2023, bringing 300 of the world’s top venture capitalists to Nairobi.
