Nigeria Ready For 2028 Take-Off Of African Central Bank In Abuja — Tinubu Tells AU 

President Bola Tinubu has told the African Union (AU) that Nigeria is prepared to host the proposed African Central Bank (ACB). 

Tinubu stated this on Saturday during the 37th ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The proposed ACB will be established as one of the original five financial institutions of the AU with the aim to issue a single African currency known as the “Afro” or “Afriq.”

The bank will act as the banker for African governments, regional unions, and private and public banking institutions.

When established, the ACB would also serve as regulator of the African banking industry in collaboration with regional central banks.

President Tinubu pledged his administration’s dedication to working with the AU Commission and member states to ensure the bank’s successful launch by 2028.

He highlighted the significance of education, the summit’s theme, in equipping future generations with the necessary skills to address Africa’s unique challenges.

“As a continent and as individual nations, we face strong headwinds and difficult hurdles threatening to complicate our mission to bring qualitative democratic governance and economic development to our people. Many of these obstacles, such as climate change and unfair patterns of global trade, are largely not of our making. However, some of the pitfalls, including coup-birthed autocracies and the deleterious tinkering with constitutional tenure provisions, are developmental cancers we as Africans are giving to ourselves,” Tinubu told the African leaders.

Beyond economy, the Nigerian leader also addressed the recent coups in West Africa, urging for dialogue and regional cooperation despite disagreements.

“The drive for a peaceful, strong, and united West Africa is bigger than any one person or group of people. The bonds of history, culture, commerce, geography, and brotherhood hold deep meaning for our people. Thus, out of the dust and fog of misunderstanding and acrimony, we must seize the chance to create a new people-centric era of trust and accord.

“To all who care to listen, I declare that if you come to the table to discuss important matters in good faith, you will find Nigeria and ECOWAS already sitting there waiting to greet you as the brother that you are,” President Tinubu said.

On education, which is the theme of this year’s summit, the President said education is the core ingredient in the process of evolving creative solutions to the unique challenges long confronting the continent.

“In helping to achieve the Agenda 2063 objective of a peaceful, united and prosperous Africa, I consider African education, not only in the narrow context of the benign use of science and technology to improve the material standards of our people, but also in the nuanced appreciation of the fact that Africa must also become better educated in the humane art of democratic practice, diplomacy, and conflict resolution without violence.

“This year’s theme encourages us to remodel our educational systems to fit these goals. In Nigeria, my administration is devoting ample resources to education at all levels. From redesigning our school feeding programmes and academic curricula to making ourselves an Information and Communication Technology hub, through which we shall bring more youths into the classroom and furnish them with the tools required to flourish in the global economy of the 21st century,” he said.