African Union two-day conference of Ministers of Finance concluded with the general consensus on the need to speedily implement the Financing of the African Union by 2017.

The consensus reflects several important outcomes of the Decision of the 27th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government, in Kigali, Rwanda to impose a 0.2% levy on eligible imports for all members’ states to finance the Union.

The Ministers adopted the Guidelines on the modalities of implementing the levy to provide reliable and predictable funding for the Operational budget of the Union, the Union’s Program and Peace Support Operations budgets.

One of the important decisions to come out of the meeting was the consensus by Ministers of Finance on the need to reduce dependency on partner funds for implementation of continental development and integration programs and further on the need to relieve the pressure on Member States national treasuries to meet national obligations for payment of assessed contributions of the Union.

Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission noted that support from the outside cannot be the main source of development on the continent. On this, Dr. Dlamini Zuma restated the words of the late president of Egypt Gamel Abdel Nasser who said that “he who cannot support himself, cannot take his own decision” and also that of the late Julius Nyere of Tanzania who said “that it is stupid for us to imagine that we shall rid ourselves of our poverty through foreign financial assistance rather than our own financial resources.

The chairperson greatly lauded the pan African aspiration of self-reliance that these great leaders stood by. “It cannot be a better time to implement the 0.2 levy now that the AU is spearheading Agenda 2063 and its 10 year flagship projects, the import levy will help generate funds for reliable sustainable and predictable financing of the Unions activities,” reiterated Dr. Dlamini Zuma.

Mbogo Ngabo Seli, Chad’s Minister for Finance and Chair of the Committee of the Ten Finance Ministers (F10), emphasized that the meeting seeks mainly to implement the decision taken by the Heads of State and Government and indicated that the Ministers of Finance ought to identify how best to sufficiently implement the decision by enriching proposals made by the AU Commission, in order to bring into force the new financing mechanism.

AUC Deputy Chairperson H.E Mr. Erastus Mwencha underscored the importance of implementing the decision and lauded the initiatives taken by some Member States such as Kenya, to implement the decision and encouraged all Member states to put in place concrete measures for effecting the Decision at the national levels.

The Deputy Chairperson also led deliberations on the composition of eligible goods, where it was agreed that the composition of eligible goods shall consider development programmes and national priorities of member States. Goods exempted from the AU import levy shall take into account goods already exempted by national laws and development policies.

Further and in compliance with the Decision to begin the implementation in 2017 and in noting the variations in legislative requirements across member States, the AU Commission and the Ministers proposed a transitional period of implementation of the Decision of no later than the end of 2017.

The Ministers called on the African Union Commission to continue its financial management and accounting reforms with a view of creating an environment of greater transparency and accountability.

The quest for self-funding of the AU emanated from the OAU as set out in the Lagos Plan of Action in 1980, the High Level Panel on Alternative Sources of funding by Obasanjo, the former president of Nigeria also made recommendations and a step towards attaining a self-reliant Union.