By Pearl Matibe
President Joseph Biden’s finance minister, Secretary of the Treasury, Janet L. Yellen, will be on an official visit to three African countries from the 17th of January. According to her detailed travel itinerary released by the US Department of the Treasury on the 13th of January, Secretary Yellen will visit Senegal, Zambia, and South Africa.
“While in Africa, Secretary Yellen will highlight the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to deepen U.S.-Africa economic ties, including by expanding trade and investment flows and promoting sustainable and inclusive economic growth,” said senior U.S. Treasury officials, adding that “this follows the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit held last month (December 2022) in Washington, DC, where President Biden announced over $15 billion in a two-way trade and investment commitments deals, and partnerships.”
It is expected that Secretary Yellen will have high-level discussions about some ways in which the U.S. is working closely with African leaders seeking to strengthen African economies on the continent that benefits their citizens, the U.S., and the entire world,” said senior Treasury officials familiar with details of her confirmed travel plans.
Yellen’s meetings will be about trade and investment including on, “funding high-quality infrastructure investments through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment, preventing and preparing for future pandemics through the new Pandemic Fund, partnering to strengthen democracies and institutions against corruption, and helping African countries address debt vulnerabilities,” they said and explained that other aspects of Yellen’s bilateral engagements in the three countries will serve to, “underscore the importance of accelerating clean energy access, helping countries adapt to a changing climate, promoting a just energy transition and providing greater economic opportunity for communities and businesses.”
It is expected that she will push for more action to evolve the multilateral development banks to address better global challenges: climate change, conflict, fragility, health, and pandemics.
According to senior Treasury officials, details of Yellen’s itinerary will be as follows:
On January 20: In Senegal, Secretary Yellen will meet with President Macky Sall, Amadou Ba, Minister of Finance and Budget, and Oulimata Sarr, Minister of Economy and International Planning. She is expected to deliver remarks on the U.S.-African economic relationship during a visit to the Délégation générale à l’Entrepreneuriat Rapide des Femmes et des Jeunes (DER/FJ), a business incubator and co-working space in Dakar providing credit and sector-specific technical assistance to young and women entrepreneurs in Senegal. DER/FJ and its work have received support from the U.S. government.
On January 21: She will visit Gorée Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site that served as a slave trading post in West Africa. There, it is expected that she will participate in a tour and speak highlighting the historical ties between the U.S. and Africa. Yellen will attend, and take part in, “the groundbreaking of a rural electrification project being led by a U.S. engineering firm, Weldy Lamont, and deliver brief remarks highlighting American investments in African infrastructure and economic development. This project is supported by Prosper Africa and with $100 million in financing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM). The project is expected to extend electricity to around 350,000 people.” Senegalese government officials and community members who are expected to benefit from these infrastructure improvements will also attend the groundbreaking event.
On January 23, Yellen will be in Zambia to meet with President Hakainde Hichilema and other Zambian government officials. Her visit will include a community health site, and a visit to Mylan Lab’s Lusaka distribution center— a U.S. firm that employs 75 workers at this facility helping to distribute anti-malarial and anti-retroviral treatments. In Zambia, her bilateral meeting with President Hichilema; will also include Zambia’s Minister of Finance Situmbeko Musokotwane; and the Governor of the Bank of Zambia, Denny H. Kalyalya.
On January 24: Yellen will tour two agricultural-related sites in Zambia. During her visit, the Secretary will deliver remarks highlighting the work the Treasury Department and the U.S. government are engaged in to promote climate-resilient agriculture and food production, as well as to mitigate the global spillover effects of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.
On January 25: She will be in South Africa. There, she is expected to visit and tour a South African wildlife park to highlight the work that the U.S. Department of the Treasury has been doing to combat illegal wildlife trafficking and support accountable institutions.
On January 26: Secretary Yellen will participate in bilateral meetings, including with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, and the South Africa Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago.
Last month, on 12 December, “the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated four Zimbabwean individuals and two Zimbabwean entities and removed seventeen Zimbabweans from the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List)” with statements made by a senior official within the Treasury Department. “We urge the Zimbabwean government to take meaningful steps towards creating a peaceful, prosperous, and politically vibrant Zimbabwe, and to address the root causes of many of Zimbabwe’s ills: corrupt elites and their abuse of the country’s institutions for their personal benefit,” the Under Secretary of the Treasury Brian E. Nelson. “The goal of sanctions is behavior change. Today’s actions demonstrate our support for a transparent and prosperous Zimbabwe.” In Yellen’s travel plan to the region, no immediate information was available on whether sanctions will be a part of discussions with regional African leaders.
On 15 December, at the invitation of the U.S. President Joseph Biden, African Heads of State and Government and Heads of Delegations from 49 African countries attended the White House-led U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, held in Washington, D.C. from 13-15 December. Yellen’s deputy secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo attended a session of the Summit; the “African and Diaspora Young Leaders Forum.”
The same day, Yellen held two separate bilateral meetings: a Bilateral Meeting with the President of the Republic of Zambia Hakainde Hichilema, and a Bilateral Meeting with the President of the Republic of Senegal Macky Sall, and she attended and delivered remarks at the Summit’s Heads of State Session on Food Security.
In the afternoon, Secretary Yellen will travel to the Ford Motor Company assembly plant outside of Pretoria where she will deliver remarks highlighting efforts to deepen U.S. – African economic ties, including through expanded trade and investment flows. While there, Secretary Yellen will also take part in a tour of the plant. The facility employs over 4,000 people and is scheduled to be entirely carbon-neutral by 2024. The event is open to pre-approved media.
On Friday, January 27, Secretary Yellen will travel to the coal mining region of Mpumalanga. While there, the Secretary will underline the U.S. commitment to South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). The tour will include a U.S. funded job training facility that is providing skills to local women to prepare them to work in the renewable energy sector. In addition to the tour, Secretary Yellen will also participate in a roundtable with women who are participating in the job training programs and will deliver brief remarks. The event is open to pre-approved media.
Pearl Matibe is a Washington, DC-based foreign correspondent, and media commentator with expertise on U.S. foreign policy and international security. You may follow her on Twitter: @PearlMatibe
