Call made for better G20 representation for Africa Special

The emerging group of developing economies at the G20 must better represent Africa, Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, said recently.

Mr. Jonathan is in Toronto for the Group of Eight and Group of 20 summits, starting Friday for three days of talks. Dr. Jonathan said the G20 will need greater representation from the continent if it wants to chart a better course for the global economy. “Africa should be well represented in the G20. Because we are talking about the global village... If you manufacture and there’s nobody to buy, you cannot sell. Nigeria has over 150 million people,” Mr. Jonathan said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. He said Africa should have a place within the G20 policy framework that will help it produce, rather than have it beg for assistance. “As long as we are not encouraged to export our produce, then we will continue to be begging,” he said. “And we should not be begging. We should be encouraged to produce.” But can Africa take advantage of a window at the G20 to bolster exports? Especially when many believe African countries are yet to fully explore the African Growth and Opportunity Act, AGOA signed into law ten years ago in the US. A Nigerian financial Journalist, Acheme Jack said AGOA was restricted only to the American community but “G20 is a combination of a broader spectrum’’ He said: “I see Africa taking more of the opportunity(G20 window) in the sense that if you look at the international trade, you would discover that not all states trade openly towards the big nations; while some are aligned towards colonial relationship where trade are higher because of their colonialism affiliation, others trade on the platter of business concern, and you see Nigeria in such a platform because in recent times, the trade relationship between the UK which was the official colonizer of Nigeria, the volume is not as much as that of the US.” Jack said “a situation where in the G20, the window is actually created, the factor of colonial relationship would be able to increase such trades and those who are ready to go on a platter of ‘where business exists lets trade because of the opportunity’, will equally seize that opportunity...I think a greater opportunity can be cashed in by African countries.”