American and African companies have struck deals worth $16.2 billion up from $15.7 billion in the last six months after the US Leaders' Summit held in December 2022, Ambassador Johnnie Carson, the Special Presidential Representative for U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Implementation, has disclosed. He said the deals covered a wide range of areas, including infrastructure, health care, solar system implementation and establishment, as well as agricultural activities. Speaking at a virtual press briefing on the U.S. African Leaders Summit, Ambassador Carson said, the agreements reached so far represented a commitment by the American business community to work effectively and work progressively with African companies and countries. The discussion with the journalists across Africa was focused on the progress made over the last six months in implementing the achievements of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit and how those efforts highlighted the U.S. commitment to the African continent but also strengthening the long-standing ties between the U.S. and Africa. The number of investments made on the continent at the summit from $15.7 billion to $16.2 billion does not include some of the announcements made recently at the G7 as part of the U.S. Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. The United States announced a $300 million investment in Ghana for Data Centres and is working on due diligence for a $250 million railway corridor from Angola to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Also, in addition, the EXIM Bank, the import - the Export-Import Bank of the United States, has authorized $1.6 billion for infrastructure investments in Africa as part of the initiative. Ambassador Carson said, in the last six months, both America and Africa had seen great progress on the business and economic front with the commitments made during the summit with a day devoted to business, commercial, and investment issues. Ambassador Carson said one of the other things that had been done since the implementation of the summit had been the establishment of a U.S. Diaspora Engagement Council as envisioned by President Biden. The council, he stated, would be represented by 12 Americans comprising individuals of first - and second-generation diaspora as well as heritage diaspora. The council will report to the President through the Secretary of State on recommendations to strengthen the level of cooperation and understanding between African Americans who are in the United States and those who live on the continent. 'The diaspora represents an enormous foreign policy asset for the United States. No one knows Africa better and is more connected than those who have recently come from there, who have their heritage there. We look at this as a very positive development.' Mr Judd Devermont, the National Security Council Senior Director for African Affairs, in his remarks, said as part of the deliverables and pledges made during the summit, one of the biggest announcements was on the Digital Transformation in Africa with an $800 million initiative to invest in the continent's digital future to enable young people to have digital literacy and access online tools and encourage more investment in the African economies and digital sector. 'We've established an African Digital Policy Council to navigate and to coordinate our efforts, and when Vice President Harris visited the continent, she went to Lusaka and made a call to action with many entrepreneurs and philanthropists, essentially creating a private sector arm to the Digital Transformation with Africa. And there'll be more to say about that in the coming months,' he said. Mr Devermon, who is also the Special Assistant to the U.S. President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) said, 'across the priority areas, some substantial difference had been made by showing up and working with its private sector and government partners in the inter-agency deliver on the President's pledge. Ms. Molly Phee, the U.S. Department of State Bureau of African Affairs Assistant Secretary of State, reaffirmed President Biden's continuous support for African in diverse fields, adding that one of the goals of the summit was to accelerate engagements to promote trade and investment between the United States and Africa. She reiterated that the deals struck at the Africa Business Forum were up to 16.2 billion in prospective deals, 'and now we're working intensively to ensure that those deals are implemented.' Ms. Phee, also a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister Counsellor, said, 'We are using the economic instruments of U.S. power, whether they be the Development Finance Corporation, our AGOA programme, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, our new initiative under the G7 to promote investment and infrastructure. So, tools like these - the EXIM Bank - to make sure that we are fully working with our African partners and with American businesses to amplify trade and investment.'

Source: Ghana News Agency