African leaders call for faster industrialization at African Union summit | African Development Bank

African leaders discussed the continent’s progress in industrialization, economic diversification and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in the context of global shocks, debt vulnerabilities, climate change and security concerns.

Twenty Heads of State and Government and their representatives attended the Extraordinary African Union Summit on Industrialisation, Economic Diversification and the AfCFTA in Niamey.

“Not so long ago, juxtaposing the words industrialization and Africa might have seemed incongruous. Today, the question it raises is mainly one of ways and means,” said Niger President Mohamed Bazoum, the host of the summit. that we are on the right track. A Nigerien proverb says, “You can’t stop a river,” he added.

Bazoum called on African countries to enshrine the rule of law to catalyze the rise of the African private sector, unleash the energy of African entrepreneurs and simplify the business environment.

“The inclusive, cohesive and orderly industrialization we want cannot be imposed and can only be achieved by creating synergies between the private and public sectors to empower SMEs and create quality jobs.”

Bazoum added: “the youth of the population and its growth, which represent a challenge, can be an asset, provided that the demographic transition is well managed.”

His Nigerian counterpart, President Muhammadu Buhari. repeated the feeling. He said: “The African continent has been wounded by a large youth population that can make up for our labor shortage. Therefore, we must tap into these abundant human resources by providing our youth with quality education that is relevant to their goals and meets the demands of the labor market.”

For President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, the way forward in terms of industrialization means investing in energy and infrastructure.

“The pace of industrialization in Africa is still too slow to achieve Africa’s development goals under Agenda 2063,” Kagame said. “We need to invest more of our national budgets in industrial policy and significantly increase energy and infrastructure capacity.”

In a speech read on his behalf, Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, noted that free trade zones had brought prosperity worldwide, not through trade in low-value products, but through industrial production. “It is therefore clear that Africa’s prosperity no longer depends on the export of raw materials, but on value-added finished products,” he said. Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbade, acting Vice President of the African Development Bank for Regional Development, Integration and Services, represented Dr. Adesina and delivered the speech on his behalf.

“Across Africa, we need to turn cocoa beans into chocolate, cotton into textiles and clothing, and coffee beans into brewed coffee,” Adesina said. He said the bank invested $25 billion to transform the continent’s agricultural sector and unlock the agribusiness market, which is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2030.

The bank chief also described efforts to develop areas that will drive Africa’s industrialization and economic diversification, including the energy, health, natural resources and pharmaceutical sectors.

“Africa has an abundance of natural resources, oil, gas, minerals and metals, as well as a huge blue economy that needs to be industrialized quickly,” Adesina said. “The future of electric cars in the world depends on Africa given its vast deposits of rare mineral resources, including lithium-ion, cobalt, nickel and copper. The size of the electric vehicle market is estimated to reach $7 trillion by 2030 and $46 trillion by 2050. Building lithium-ion battery precursor facilities in Africa will cost three times less than in other parts of the world,” he said.

At the summit, the African Development Bank, the African Union and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization launched the inaugural Africa Industrial Index. The joint report found that 37 of Africa’s 52 countries have industrialized in the past 11 years. The study provides a country-level assessment of progress made by the 52 African countries based on 19 key indicators.

The 19 indicators in the index cover production performance, capital, labour, business climate, infrastructure and macroeconomic stability. The index also ranks the level of industrialization of African countries along various dimensions, including capital, labor, institutions, infrastructure and macroeconomic stability, among others.

South Africa has maintained a very high ranking throughout the 2010-2021 period, closely followed by Morocco, which is in second place in 2022. Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritius and Eswatini round out the top six over the period.

The report will help African governments identify benchmark countries to better assess their own industrial performance and apply best practices more effectively.

At the summit, the heads of state also discussed the pace of operationalization of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which will come into effect in January 2021, as well as its links to industrialization.