President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, says for African nations to overcome poverty and underdevelopment, the continent must stop the export of raw materials.
Africa accounts for less than 2% of global manufacturing, according to data from the Office of US Trade Representative and other multilateral institutions.
In a post on X, Adesina stressed the 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,” Adesina posted.
His comments come amid renewed calls for structural transformation in Africa’s trade and economic policies, especially in the wake of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.
Adesina had last week 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 development economist had 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 tackle this, 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.
