Kenya’s President William Ruto urged African countries to stop trading with the U.S. dollar for cross-border transactions. Ruto questioned the use of the dollar for global trade and asked African nations to pay with local currencies instead. The President stressed that Kenya has no reason to pay with the U.S. dollar for trade between African nations. The speech with lawmakers was met with applause at a time when 30 nations are looking to join the BRICS alliance.
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The Kenyan President said that Africa must promote local currencies for payments among themselves during trade and not the USD. The aim is to strengthen local currencies and help African economies and businesses to sustain themselves in the long run.
BRICS: Stop Trading With The U.S. Dollar For Global Transactions, Says Kenyan President
Ruto confirmed that the African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim) is building a platform that will allow traders to settle payments with local currencies. The payment integration will be made with native currencies during cross-border trade among African nations.
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The President said that he is not against the U.S. dollar but will trade in the USD while doing business with America. “We are not against the U.S. dollar, we just want to trade much more freely. Let us pay with the dollar what we are buying from the U.S. Let us pay with our currency what we are buying from Djibouti.”
He added, “Why is it necessary for us to buy things from Djibouti and pay in dollars? There’s no reason. If we are selling from Kenya to Djibouti, we have to look for U.S. dollars. How is the dollar part of the trade between Djibouti and Kenya?”
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Countries around the world are expressing their interest to join the BRICS alliance. Kenya is among the nations that plan to enter the BRICS bloc and accept the new currency for international trade. If the new BRICS currency is accepted by the majority of the countries, the U.S. dollar could be badly hit.