G20: Sunil Bharti Mittal hails African Union inclusion, calls for a 'debt reset'

G20 Summit: "Africa is where India was 15-20 years back," Mittal said. "So I remain very enthusiastic about African growth and will keep on investing more into the African networks," he added.

Bharti Enterprises chairperson and founder Sunil Bharti Mittal on September 9 hailed the inclusion of African Union as a permanent member of G20, describing it as a milestone moment.

The group of world’s 20 largest economies on Day 1 of the leaders’ summit in New Delhi accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal to bring the 55-member bloc into the fold, in keeping his push for greater representation for Global South

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Mittal, who is also the B20 chair, spoke about the significance of the development, debt relief for African countries, India-Africa relations, his bullish stance on Africa and more. Edited excerpts:

Bullish on Africa

Mittal said he was very bullish on Africa. "Africa has been growing for Airtel at 20 percent which is absolutely stunning growth for a company that you can double in about four years time," he said.

Currency depreciation, however, was a worry. "As the economies of Africa will stabilise, so would the currency. But the growth rates are absolutely astounding," he said.

"Africa is where India was 15-20 years back," Mittal said. "So I remain very enthusiastic about African growth and will keep on investing more into the African networks," he added.

"Today's inclusion of the African Union as the permanent member of G20, signals that you cannot leave large continents like Africa behind. They need to be part of the main table, the decision making process and the forums that decide the new world order."

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Debt burden

Mittal said the first thing would be the economic development of Africa. "Africa is endowed with all the minerals and metals that the world needs today," he said. "We also need to focus on Africa's agriculture and value- added agriculture produce."

He identified debt as one of the major challenges facing African countries as he argued for loan waiver. He cited examples of Zambia, which has copper deposits, and oil-producing countries like Angola and Gabon falling into debt traps.

"This needs a reset," Mittal said. "A debate must ensue among the global leaders how to write off most of these loans once. By giving large amounts of debt from China and then securing long-term supply chains on critical minerals, metals, oil and gas, Africa has been deprived of the continuous income that is required to build their own infrastructure, healthcare, education. If the debt trap is not lifted, I don't think the world can achieve its objective of putting Africa on an economic momentum."

India-Africa Relations

Africa can use the India model of digital public infrastructure (DPI). Nigerian President Tinubu spoke of adopting that model into Nigeria, Mittal said.

"If most of the African nations can adopt the DPI for the benefit of their citizens, to my mind they will be able to provide financial inclusion, direct benefit transfers to their citizens, importantly ensure that the government services in health and pubic services can be delivered at the most frugal cost in a most efficient manner. To my mind, this will be the biggest area of engagement between the India and the African continent."

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Speaking on connectivity, Mittal said, “Any place that puts out DPI for the benefit of its society and citizens, will need a robust telecom connectivity."

Africa has done well and need to do more because the telecom networks were limited.

Telecom and 5G

India is now setting standard for the next generation of telecom technologies, especially in 6G.

"Collaborating with US in this regard is a very important turn of event and because of this our patent filing will increase, engineers will start to participate in the 6G standard so there will be a variety of activities," he said.

He said India has changed the face of G20. "There has never been a G20 like this before and in my mind there never will one be in the future," Mittal added.