Wale Tinubu, Group Chief Executive of Oando Plc, has called on African countries to do more to retain the economic value generated from the continent’s natural and human resources, saying Africa’s future will depend increasingly on what it builds from those resources.
Tinubu made the call while reflecting on discussions at the Unstoppable Africa programme in New York, held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly.
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His comments centred on a longstanding challenge for African economies: the export of raw commodities without capturing enough of the higher-value economic activity that comes from processing, manufacturing and developing products for wider markets.
Tinubu argued that the continent’s considerable resource base alone would not guarantee broad economic transformation.
Instead, he said African countries needed to strengthen their capacity to process resources locally, develop productive industries and ensure that a larger share of the resulting wealth remained within African economies.
“Africa’s future will not be determined simply by the resources beneath our soil, but by what we do with them, the value we create from them, and how much of that value we retain on the continent,” Tinubu said.
The Oando chief executive said achieving that objective would require significant investment in processing and manufacturing.
He also pointed to the need to mobilise capital from within Africa, identifying banks, sovereign wealth funds and insurance institutions as important sources of financing for businesses and infrastructure capable of supporting industrial growth.
For Tinubu, increasing African ownership of capital is closely linked to the continent’s ability to determine how its resources are developed and where the economic benefits ultimately accrue.
He also stressed the importance of fully implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area, which is intended to reduce barriers to trade between African countries and create a larger market for businesses operating across the continent.
Greater intra-African trade, he suggested, would give companies more room to expand, while helping to connect producers, manufacturers, investors and consumers across national borders.
Tinubu said Africa’s economic transformation could not be delivered by one sector alone.
He argued that industrial capacity, finance, trade and entrepreneurship would need to work together if African economies were to build stronger and more sustainable value chains.
The Wale Tinubu Africa message comes against a wider backdrop of efforts by governments and business leaders to move the continent away from dependence on the export of unprocessed commodities.
The same issue has featured prominently in discussions surrounding Africa’s mineral resources, with African policymakers increasingly calling for local processing and manufacturing to create jobs and retain more value before raw materials leave the continent.
At a high-level roundtable held on the sidelines of the same UN General Assembly, Vice President Kashim Shettima also urged African countries to move beyond exporting raw minerals and develop industries around the continent’s resource wealth.
The meeting brought together governments, investors and mining stakeholders to discuss mineral value addition and continental cooperation.
That broader debate reflects the economic argument behind Tinubu’s remarks: possessing natural resources is only one part of the equation, while processing, financing, manufacturing and trade determine how much economic activity is created around those resources.
The Oando chief executive has consistently advocated greater African participation in the continent’s energy and wider economic value chains, with emphasis on investment, industrialisation and the development of local capacity.
The Unstoppable Africa gathering brought together African business leaders, policymakers, investors and other stakeholders in New York to discuss strategies for accelerating economic development and strengthening the continent’s position in the global economy.
For African economies seeking stronger growth, the debate is therefore shifting from simply asking how much the continent can extract to how much it can process, manufacture, finance and ultimately retain.
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Tinubu’s intervention adds a powerful business perspective to that conversation, placing domestic value creation and stronger African economic integration at the centre of the continent’s long-term development ambitions.
Mariam Balogun is a contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, business, and public affairs.
