Africa must stop raw materials’ export to trigger growth -Adesina
President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said that the continent of Africa must end the export of its raw materials and inputs to trigger growth.
In his official X page on Thursday, Adesina said the continent must embrace export of value-added products to increase its wealth.
“Africa must end the exports of its raw materials. The export of raw materials is the door to poverty. The export of value-added products is the highway to wealth. And Africa is tired of being poor,” Adesina posted.
Africa is known for exporting raw materials to Europe, the Americas, Asia and other parts of the world. The inputs are used to manufacture finished products for use in Africa. But Adesina said this should not be so.
He had in 2023 charged Nigeria to take the leadership, noting that the nation urgently needs to revamp its industrial sector to become an economic giant.
“Malaysia and Vietnam have used aggressive horizontal and vertical diversification of industrial production to move from low-value to high-value market products,” Adesina said in Lagos. “The result is reflected in the comparative wealth of the three countries. While the per capita export value is $7,100 for Malaysia and $3,600 for Vietnam, it is only $160 for Nigeria.”
“Nigeria should never be a poor country, and Nigerians are tired of being poor. Nigeria must move decisively from managing poverty to managing wealth,” Adesina said.
He noted that the challenge is for the lion to roar, stressing that industrial manufacturing can earn Nigeria 10 times what it earns from oil dependence.
He urged the country to implement the right policies, investments, infrastructure, logistics, and financing frameworks, steered by a highly skilled, dynamic, and youthful workforce.
Adesina said Nigeria must close the huge gap between policy ideas and action, calling on the Nigerian government to transform its ports and remove administrative hurdles to improve their efficiency.
