Ruto to world leaders: Africa doesn’t need handouts — we want fairness in global market

Kenyan President William Ruto says Africa and other developing countries need fairness in the international market as against the “handouts” they constantly receive from developed nations.

Ruto spoke at the Climate Ambition Summit organised by Antonio Guterres  UN general secretary on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA78) in New York.

He said Africa needs a fair financial system, fair access to the market for green assets and an equitable deployment of capital.

“Neither Africa nor the developing world stands in need of charity, handouts or alms from the developed countries,” Ruto said.

“What we need is fairness, a fair financial system, fair market access for green assets, products and services, fair national and regional trade mechanisms which promote fair competition to facilitate efficient deployment of capital in locations offering the highest comparative advantage for global decarbonization.”

Drawing from the Nairobi declaration which came forth from the Africa climate summit, Ruto said there is a need for a global climate financing charter by 2025, which would include debt relief and the elimination of disparities in credit rating.

He called for the scale-up of concessional financing by at least $500 billion per year for Africa.

“The Nairobi Declaration advocates the following specific measures – to begin with, new debt relief instruments and interventions to proactively manage debt default principally through the extension of tenure of existing sovereign debt and the provision of a 10-year grace period.

“Additionally, the issuance of new Special Drawing Rights (SDR) dedicated to climate crisis response of similar magnitude and with similar urgency and resolve as the SDR provision for pandemic response two years ago, together with the scaling up of concessional financing by at least 500 billion dollars.

“Further, the elimination of existing growth and irrational disparities in credit rating and risk analysis before 2025 to address the manifestly unfair situation, where low-income countries pay up to five times more than their wealthier counterparts.”

He said Africa has abundant natural resources, including renewable energy potential, adding that the continent can “leapfrog straight into a fully green industrial paradigm”.

Ruto noted Africa is ready to do its part, but needs the support of the developed world to mobilise necessary capital to support the continent’s transition to a clean energy economy.