US Secretary Yellen Kicks Off Africa Tour in Senegal
On 20 January 2023, US Treasury Janet Yellen arrived in the Senegal’s capital, Dakar, which is the first stop on her ten-day tour of Africa (#YellenAfrica2023) which will also take her to Zambia, and South Africa.
In Senegal, the agenda will cover the fight against #ClimateChange, #DigitalTransformation, and the strengthening of democracy and anti-corruption. She is scheduled to meet with #AU Chair and Senegalese President Macky Sall as well as Finance Minister Mamadou Ba.
“Senegal, like many other countries, has experienced rising domestic inflation amid increased prices for food, fuel, and fertilizer. At the same time, as advanced and emerging economies have slowed down in response to the most recent global shock of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the external environment for developing economies like Senegal has become more challenging. Minister Ba and I will build on our conversation from last fall to discuss how to build a more resilient global economy in the face of overlapping shocks.”
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
While discussing Climate Change, Secretary Yellen expressed her pleasure that US #PowerAfrica is proud to partner with Senegal to build one of the largest wind farms in West Africa. The Taiba N’Diaye utility-scale wind farm is rated with a capacity of 158 MW and will be able to power up 2 million homes or supply almost 20% of the country’s electricity needs.
It is worth noting that 17 of the world’s most vulnerable countries to Climate Change are in Africa. US President Biden pledged more than USD 1 billion to support climate resilience efforts in Africa. It is also worth highlighting that the world’s largest mineral reserves, some of which are critical to the #GreenTransition are to be found in Africa.
She also had a working session with a US-funded business incubator “Rapid Entrepreneurship for Women and Youth” in Dakar. In her speech, she reiterated that the US intends to invest more than USD 350 million to facilitate internet access and enhance digital and entrepreneurial skills in Africa. She also emphasized the commitment of the US to Africa and its plan to boost trade and investment in and with Africa.
On Saturday 21 January 2023, she paid a visit to the slavery museum on Gorree island. During the tour of the museum, she highlighted that the US and Senegal are “intimately connected” via a tragic episode in human history through the Transatlantic Slave Trade, with sequels still lingering today.
Today, she underscored: “The US is fully behind Africa and fully with Africa.” She cautioned against “brilliant agreement that could turn out to be opaque” and unprofitable to the people, it was supposed to benefit. She underlined that the US offers a better and more reliable way to shared growth and prosperity due to its adherence to high standards of transparency, accountability, good governance and conformity with democratic values and human rights.