President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has called on African countries to stop exporting raw materials and instead prioritise the production of value-added goods to tackle poverty and underdevelopment. He made the call in a post on his official X handle on Thursday, stressing that the continent must move from being a supplier of unprocessed commodities to a manufacturing powerhouse.
Adesina pointed out that despite Africa’s vast natural resources, the continent accounts for less than 2% of global manufacturing and less than 3% of global trade. He described the export of raw materials as “the door to poverty” and said that adding value locally is the “highway to wealth”, adding that “Africa is tired of being poor”.
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The AfDB president has consistently championed policies aimed at boosting agro-industrialisation, energy infrastructure, and intra-African trade. He cited the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a key platform to strengthen local manufacturing and reduce dependency on foreign markets.
Adesina also criticised the unequal allocation of the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights, which gave Africa just $33 billion of the $650 billion issued globally. To address this, he revealed that the AfDB and African Union are working on a new framework with the Inter-American Development Bank to redirect unused SDRs from wealthier nations to African economies.
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