Speaking at the opening of the Rabat Forum on the Reduction of Remittance Costs for the African Diaspora, Dussey said that “Morocco has made essential and important efforts to implement the 2021-2031 agenda” and has also played an important role in all activities related to the African diaspora.
This meeting comes in an international context characterized by multiple uncertainties and challenges, noted Togo’s top diplomat, noting that “this forum is a privileged opportunity to strengthen the frameworks for dialogue regarding the actions to be taken” to reduce the remittance costs for the diaspora.
He also stressed the need to submit concrete proposals at the end of the Forum, focusing in particular on innovative technological solutions that would help reduce costs and encourage immigrants to invest in the economies of their countries of origin.
The minister also announced Togo’s intention to organize a pan-African conference in 2024 to address the various economic and political aspects of the African diaspora.
For her part, the Minister to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad, Annette Seck, welcomed the organization of this forum which “comes at the right time”, emphasizing the strong recommendations that will be provided at the end of the Forum and which will be carried by the African Union so that all the bottlenecks that could arise and negatively impact the establishment of new supports can be avoided, and thus, allow to capitalize on these transfers.
Seck also indicated that the issue of reducing the cost of remittances from the African Diaspora is important for all of Africa.
Enormous efforts are still needed, she noted, because “this diaspora pays in the absence of adequate support, the high price of these remittances, benefits very little and the countries of origin, even less.”
Co-chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, Nasser Bourita and his Togolese counterpart, Robert Dussey, this forum is held with the participation of representatives of the AU Commissioner for Development, Trade, Industry and Mining, the AU Commissioner for Health Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development as well as the Director of Citizens and Diaspora of the AU (CIDO) but also representatives of Africa’s partners and financial institutions, notably the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the IMF, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
