President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has called on African nations to put an end to the export of raw materials if the continent is to overcome poverty and underdevelopment.
According to data from the Office of US Trade Representative and other multilateral institutions, Africa accounts for less than 2% of global manufacturing.
In a post shared on Thursday via his official X handle, Adesina stressed need for Africa to shift from being a supplier of unprocessed commodities to a producer of value-added goods.
“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 wrote.
Despite Africa being home to the world’s most sought-after raw materials, its share of global trade remains under 3%. Efforts to change this narrative have gained momentum in recent years. Initiatives such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) are designed to enhance intra-African trade, boost manufacturing, and encourage value addition across sectors.
Adesina has consistently advocated for policies that promote agro-industrialisation, energy expansion, and improved infrastructure as a foundation for transforming Africa’s economies.
Last week, Adesina criticised the disproportionate allocation of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), revealing that Africa received just $33 billion, only 4.5% of the $650 billion issued globally.
The AfDB president stressed that the distribution model of the SDRs failed to reflect the urgent financial needs of Africa, which bore some of the deepest economic scars from the pandemic, with limited fiscal capacity to implement a robust recovery plan.
To address this imbalance, Adesina disclosed that the AfDB, in partnership with the African Union, spearheaded efforts to rechannel unused SDRs from wealthier nations to African economies. Leveraging the AfDB’s AAA credit rating, a new framework co-developed with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has now been approved by the IMF Board.
