US Set To Give Africans Financial Support

US President Joe Biden has reportedly said that billions of dollars will be given as support and investment for Africa.

This was said at the US Washington DC meeting summit with the continents heads of state.

“The United States is all in on Africa’s future,” President Biden told the 49 African leaders that attended the meeting.

It is the first such gathering hosted by Washington for eight years.

Mr Biden struck a very different tone to his predecessor, speaking optimistically of improved links with Africa and telling the gathering that “when Africa succeeds, the United States succeeds. Quite frankly, the whole world succeeds as well.”

He said that the crises facing the world today needed African leadership, ideas and innovations, and promised to build on the “vital” investments in Africa made by previous US administrations.

To that end, ahead of the three-day summit which ends on Thursday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the US would give $55bn (£44bn) to Africa over the next three years.

In his address on Wednesday, the US president spoke about a $500m-investment to reduce transport costs at a key West African port in Benin.

He also mentioned $350m that would be spent on boosting the digital economy and said that $15bn-worth of deals had been struck at the US-Africa Business Forum.

The US is also set to sign a memorandum with the African Continental Free Trade Area – one of the world’s biggest free-trade areas – which Mr Biden said would “unlock new opportunities for trade and investment” between the US and Africa.

On the sidelines of the summit on Wednesday, Mr Biden separately met the six leaders of African nations which are holding elections in 2023 to press for free votes.

This was about President Biden trying to win back influence in Africa with personal diplomacy as well as by promising billions of dollars of funding in key sectors and rallying private sector investments.

The subtext was that America was trying to catch up with other countries, including Russia and especially China, that have developed stronger ties with the continent.

But the message was that the US wanted a strategic relationship with Africa, which has become a key geopolitical player with some of the fastest growing economies in the world.

But following up and sustaining engagement will be crucial to proving US commitment and for that the White House appointed a special envoy.