President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has called on African nations to immediately end the long-standing practice of exporting raw materials but instead, build a suitable system that will deepen manufacturing. According to him, the continent’s continued dependence on unprocessed commodity exports remains a key driver of poverty and underdevelopment.
In a message shared Thursday via his official X (formerly Twitter) handle, Adesina emphasised the urgent need for Africa to transition from being a supplier of raw goods to a producer of value-added products that can drive wealth creation and economic transformation.
“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,” he declared.
Despite being richly endowed with natural resources—including crude oil, gold, cobalt, cocoa, coffee, and cotton—Africa continues to derive minimal economic benefit from its wealth due to the dominance of raw exports. These commodities are often processed in industrialized nations and returned to Africann markets as finished products at significantly higher prices, resulting in limited local value capture and stunted industrial development.
Currently, Africa accounts for less than 2% of global manufacturing output and under 3% of global trade, according to data from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and other multilateral sources. This stark disparity underscores the urgency of industrialization and the need for stronger regional value chains.
In response to this long-standing challenge, initiatives like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) have emerged to promote intra-African trade, industrial capacity building, and value addition across sectors. Adesina has consistently championed these goals, pushing for greater investment in agro-industrialization, energy infrastructure, and transportation networks to unlock Africa’s economic potential.
Beyond industrial development, Adesina has also spoken out on global financial imbalances affecting African nations. Just last week, he criticized the inequitable distribution of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), highlighting that Africa received only $33 billion—or 4.5%—of the $650 billion disbursed globally.
He argued that this distribution model overlooks the pressing financial needs of African countries, which were among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and possess limited fiscal space for recovery efforts.
To correct this imbalance, Adesina announced that the AfDB, in collaboration with the African Union, had spearheaded a bold initiative to rechannel unused SDRs from wealthier nations to African economies. With the AfDB’s AAA credit rating and in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a new financing framework was developed and has now been approved by the IMF Board.
The AfDB president’s latest remarks reinforce a growing consensus among development experts and economists that Africa’s future depends on its ability to industrialize, add value to its resources, and take control of its economic destiny.
Experts also insist that by ending the cycle of raw material exports and investing in manufacturing and infrastructure, Africa can chart a new course defined not by dependency, but by prosperity.