Today, in London, I had the honour of addressing the Plenary of
Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC) Trade and
Investment Summit of 2025 on topic “AFRICA ROLE IN THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMY”
The discussion on Africa’s Role in the New Global Economy is a topic
of immense importance considering the opportunities and endless
potentials within the vast continent of Africa, which, when fully
harnessed, promises a great positive impact, not just within the
Commonwealth economy but globally.
The recent interventions of President Trump have disrupted some of
the settled assumptions of the global economy, which has seen many
countries now taking proactive and active responses to secure their
economies, while the same is presently not happening in Africa.
Despite its vast opportunities, Africa’s share of global trade,
according to the World Trade Organization (WTO), stands at 2-3%. Our
share of the global GDP stands at about 3%. Africa’s
GDP per capita is even worse at $1900 when compared to the continent in
ranking – Asia, where the GDP per capita is around $9000. Africa’s
global trade and GDP have been stagnant for more than 2 decades in
contrast to Africa being the 2nd largest and most populous continent
with a population of about 1.5 billion people. Africa is home to the
most youthful and dynamic workforce with the largest concentration of
working-age population of about 1 billion people.
Africa has an abundance of natural resources ranging from minerals to
nearly a billion hectares of arable uncultivated land. Africa holds
over 60% of the world’s arable land. Approximately 30 per cent of the
world’s mineral resources are found in Africa. While Africa did not
witness a similar economic transformation under globalization 2.0, we
need to rise up and take the right actions to ensure that we can profit
from whatever trading system will arise in the wake of the second Trump
Presidency.
This Africa can achieve by simply investing in its potential – the
youthful human capital of over a billion workforce it has to create the
needed skilled workforce and productivity both for Africa’s and global
development.
Africa’s food and agriculture market is projected to increase from
its present amount of about US$280 billion a year to over US$1 trillion a
year by 2030. This shows that with agriculture at the core of Africa’s
economic transformation, the continent has the potential to become a
global agricultural powerhouse and a net exporter of food, contributing
immeasurably to the new global economy.
What is missing is the leadership that can reorder priorities and
scale up productivity so that African countries can enter higher grade
value creation. We have seen evidence of the possibility of higher-grade
value creation in some of the better-governed African countries.
The challenge is scaling up and sustaining innovative production in
the region. We need to produce more goods and services that the world
needs and be smart to leverage whatever global trade arrangement
survives Mr Trump’s disruption.
This is a junction for transformative change in Africa. This period requires new thinking about leadership. It requires refocusing on productivity.
Africa pursued economic convergence in the previous era by importing
political and economic institutions of Western developed economics
without focusing on productivity and human capital development like the
developmental state of Asia.
This is the time to rebuild African economies through new leadership
that focuses on rapid upgrades in productive capacities, especially
innovative education and healthcare and pulling Africans out of poverty.
-PO
