Former President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has called on African countries to move beyond exporting raw materials and build globally competitive industries through industrialization, technological innovation, and visionary leadership. He made the call while delivering a keynote address at the BPI Iconic Awards in Johannesburg, South Africa. Adesina emphasized that Africa must transform its vast natural resources, youthful population, and expanding markets into productive capacity, quality jobs, and broad-based prosperity.
Adesina identified industrial capacity, technological innovation, and deeper continental integration as critical to Africa's economic transformation. He stressed that the continent must develop the capacity to process its resources, manufacture products, and create technologies rather than remain dependent on commodity exports. The former AfDB president cited Nigeria's $20 billion Dangote Refinery as an example of the scale of industrial investment possible on the continent.
Adesina urged African countries to develop more industrial champions across strategic sectors, including automobiles and electric vehicles, batteries, steel, machinery, pharmaceuticals, medical technology, food processing, software, and artificial intelligence. He emphasized that the continent's development would depend on its ability to retain more value from its natural resources by expanding local processing, refining, manufacturing, research, and innovation.
On technology, Adesina urged governments, universities, and vocational institutions to prepare young Africans not only to use emerging technologies but also to develop them. He identified artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, cybersecurity, and data science as areas in which African countries must build expertise and compete globally.
Adesina emphasized that Africa's youthful population could become a major economic advantage if governments invested in education, relevant skills, technological capacity, and opportunities for young people to establish businesses and create jobs. He called for greater investment in universities, laboratories, computing infrastructure, and industrial ecosystems to enable African researchers and businesses to participate in developing advanced technologies.
The former AfDB president also urged African governments to maximize the potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), describing it as more than a trade arrangement. He said the continental initiative could serve as an industrial platform for connecting markets, attracting investment, and enabling African businesses to achieve the scale required to compete internationally.
Adesina stressed that industrialization and technological advancement must be accompanied by ethical leadership, accountable governance, and strong public institutions. He emphasized that public power and resources must be deployed in the public interest, with transparency, accountability, and due process guiding decisions on public finances, infrastructure, mining agreements, and strategic partnerships.
Key points
- Adesina urges Africa to transform its natural resources into productive capacity and globally competitive industries.
- The continent must develop the capacity to process its resources, manufacture products, and create technologies rather than remain dependent on commodity exports.
- Adesina emphasizes the need for ethical leadership, accountable governance, and strong public institutions to accompany industrialization and technological advancement.
