African countries emerged from the second Russia-Africa Summit in St Petersburg with a mixed bag of goodies. For the vulnerable ones such as Somalia, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Mali and the Central African Republic, 50,000 tonnes of free grain will be hitting their shores soon.

Overall, Russia says it is forgiving more than $20 billion worth of debt owed by African countries, including Ethiopia ($5.7 billion), Libya ($4.5 billion), Angola ($3.5 billion), and Somalia ($684 million).

Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, who represented his country at the summit, said he met with senior executives from four Russian companies and discussed trade and business deals.

Majaliwa told the Russian business executives that Tanzania has banked on the fast-expanding regional markets shared with Kenya, Uganda, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique.

Tanzania, he said, wants Russian companies to establish fertiliser factories in the country to satisfy the demand of over 800,000 tonnes per year.

Dar is able to meet only 200,000 tonnes of that.

Russia announced in the aftermath of the summit that it wants to raise trade with Africa against Western sanctions.

“We are planning to build up our trade in quality and quantity and improve its pattern. We are also going to gradually switch to national currencies, including the ruble, in making financial payments on commercial deals,” Russian leader Vladmir Putin told a press conference in St Petersburg.

“We will be removing trade barriers by aligning integration processes in the Eurasian Economic Union and the African Union and its free trade area. We intend to increase exports to Africa of Russian industrial products that have earned a good reputation on the continent, including machinery, automobiles, equipment, chemicals and fertilisers.”

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