Kenya has asked African countries to start trading in their own currency when doing business with each other and exchanging services.
Kenyan President William Ruto, who headed to Djibouti for the IGAD summit, called for Africa’s dependence on the dollar to end.
“Why do we buy goods from Djibouti and pay in dollars? why? “There is no reason,” said President Ruto, adding that neither Djibouti nor Kenya need to use the US dollar when doing business with each other.
“We are not against the US dollar, “But because we want to trade freely,” he said about the importance of the dollar.
According to the East African newspaper, President Ruto added, “We only need dollars for our trade with America.”
The President also mentioned that the Afri-Exim Bank, which was established in 1993, has developed a system that allows the transaction to be carried out in the money of each country.
President Ruto also confirmed that Kenya will implement the Pan African payment system introduced by the same bank.
The report indicates that the 14th IGAD summit held in Djibouti did not recommend the details of the East African countries doing transactions with their currencies other than the dollar.
It is expected that Kenya’s initiative to strengthen trade ties among African countries with severe foreign exchange problems will bring good results.
Russia has said, it will start denominating its trade with Africa after the next Russia-Africa summit in Sochi.
According to IMF 2022 report, more than 6 trillion dollars of trade in the world is conducted in US dollars and it is the lowest in the last 20 years.
Countries under Western pressure, including Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and India, have abandoned the dollar and started trading in their own currency.
