NEPAD Agency Chief Executive Officer Dr Ibrahim Mayaki has underscored that the extractive industry is a key driver for sustainable economic growth on the African continent. Dr Mayaki delivered the opening remarks at a High-Level Expert Group Meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, this week.

The event was organised by the UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Department of Public Information (DPI).

Key on the agenda was how to improve the management of Africa's extractive industries in order to promote sustainable development, structural economic transformation and inclusive growth, so as to achieve the goals of the post-2015 development agenda and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Dr Mayaki said that Africa holds 30 per cent of the global reserves of raw mineral materials and is already a major producer of a large number of natural resources, with the mining sector, in particular, attracting investment and driving economic growth on the continent by creating employment opportunities and boosting tax revenues.

The Post-2015 agenda and the AU’s Agenda 2063 set out clear milestones for an extractive-led economic transformation. Agenda 2063, specifically, emphasises that the revenues from the extractive sectors are an important source for financing of Africa’s development and that the continent needs to take full charge of its own natural resources through industrialisation and value addition of raw minerals.

Dr Mayaki urged that despite continues growth; Africa’s mineral sector has not yet reached its full potential due to a lack of sustainable resource governance and comprehensive regional infrastructure development. He underscored that the NEPAD Agency, as the implementing arm of the AU, has a key role to play in advocating and providing support on the management of natural resources at the national, regional and continental level through its Natural Resource Governance (NRG) Programme.

The keynote speaker was Sir Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, at Oxford University. Panellists included the President of the UN General Assembly, Sam Kahamba who was deputised by Ambassador of Burkina Faso, Der Kogda; OSAA Special Advisor, Maged Abdelaziz; AUC Commissioner for Trade and Industry, Fatima Haram Acyl; and ECA Director of the Special Initiative Division; Fatima Denton.