India's JAM trinity should be applied to Africa: Sunil Bharti Mittal

G20 forum to soon submit suggestions for African economic integration

India’s initiatives spanning the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) trinity should be applied to Africa so that a high level of digital connectivity can quickly spread across the continent, Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said on Tuesday.

Mittal is a key member of the B20, the official G20 dialogue forum with the global business community.

Speaking at the CII Partnership Summit 2023, Mittal said the integration of the African economy had been chosen by India as one of the legacies it wanted to leave behind as part of its G20 presidency.

Solutions, such as India’s digital stack, which is based on digital identity in the form of Aadhaar, leveraging of fintech to move finances and subsidies across the population in a dramatically frugal way and putting a mobile phone in the hands of everybody had served India well and would do the same for Africa.

Despite commanding a continental gross domestic product of $3.2 trillion, the 55 countries of Africa have less than a 2 per cent share of global manufacturing output. Mittal, under whom Bharti Airtel’s Africa business now spans 15 countries across the continent, said this showed the potential of Africa to occupy a much larger share of the global economy.

Mittal stressed the need to focus on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. Established in 2018, it aims to create a common trade area of 1.3 billion people and is set to raise inward foreign direct investment by up to 1.6 times.

B20 recommendations soon

Mittal said the B20 Council on Tuesday came out with a zero draft plan on African economic integration. “The draft will be presented at the next meeting in April, and eventually be presented to the G20 in July, so that there can be full scale agreement on the issue at the September summit,” he said. The Council has up to seven co-chairs from various nations.

Physical and digital connectivity form the core of the recommendations made by the B20. Mittal said most places in Africa already had a decent 4G mobile network, which could get the job of digital connectivity done.

“We don't need to wait for 5G metaverse type interventions. Therefore, the Indian model (of telecom development) can work in Africa,” he said.

On physical connectivity, Mittal said the recommendations would point out ways to cut down the lengthy trade routes currently in use in the continent. He flagged the issue of exports from certain African economies needing to be first moved to Europe, before they can be brought back to the neighboring country simply due to lack of access.

Other areas of focus for the recommendations include meaningful investments into the agrarian economy to boost food production, mass skilling, and boosting manufacturing growth. Mittal referred to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as having the largest land mass in the continent and yet falling short of food.

India’s G20 presidency has had the largest-ever representation from Africa with six participants. In addition to South Africa, other African countries invited to G20 meetings and the summit are Egypt, Mauritius, Nigeria, the Chair of African Union, and the Chair of African Union Development Agency. In January, India hosted the Voice of Global South Summit with a focus on charting a new path of greater collaboration towards realisation of the priorities of developing countries.

Larger powers are now moving away from providing just aid to facilitating actual support. The idea behind the Council is to focus the energies of the capital allocations for Africa till date into a select few issues, Mittal said.