Africa Must Shift From Exporting Raw Materials to Building Value, Finance Minister Tells Business Leaders
Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson has called on Africa to break its long-standing pattern of exporting raw materials and importing dependency, urging the continent to become a production and value-addition force in the global economy over the next 25 years.
Delivering the keynote address at the Ishmael Yamson & Associates Business Roundtable in Accra on the theme “Unlocking the Next Quarter Century,” Dr Forson said Africa stands at a defining historical crossroad.
“For centuries, we supplied the world with raw materials, labour, and strategic resources. However, we captured only a fraction of the value created from them,” he said.
“Today, the pattern risks repeating itself in a new form. Our raw materials are still leaves. Increasingly, our data leaves.”
He argued that Africa’s progress over the past 25 years in infrastructure, digital connectivity, education, and institutions has not translated sufficiently into economic transformation.
With 1.4 billion people and a market of over US$3.4 trillion under the African Continental Free Trade Area, he said the continent has the scale but is underutilising it, noting that intra-African trade remains at about 15% compared to 70% in Europe.
Digital and Energy Infrastructure as Priorities
Dr Forson said the next phase of Africa’s rise would be driven by infrastructure across agriculture, energy, transport, digital systems, finance, and human capital.
“The nations that control data infrastructure and digital ecosystems will shape the future global economy,” he said, warning that Africa risks becoming a consumer rather than a producer in the digital age.
He called for a continental digital strategy covering regional data centres, affordable broadband, cross-border payments, cybersecurity, AI readiness, and digital skills.
On energy, he said industrialisation is impossible “in darkness,” pointing to over 600 million Africans without electricity and US$25 billion lost annually to power outages.
Ghana, he said, is targeting 3,000 megawatts of installed generation capacity by 2030, with at least 40% from renewables.
Industrialisation and AfCFTA
The Minister said Africa’s next 25 years must become its industrial century, moving from exporting lithium and bauxite to refining and manufacturing, and from exporting cocoa to building competitive value chains.
He described the AfCFTA as one of the most consequential projects in modern African history, with the potential to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty and boost continental income by US$450 billion by 2035.
But he stressed that agreements alone do not create integration without infrastructure, efficient borders, payment systems, and policy coordination.
Governance and Youth as Central to Transformation
Dr Forson said governance reforms would determine whether Africa’s opportunities become prosperity or another missed moment, emphasising institutional credibility, policy predictability, rule of law, fiscal discipline, and public trust.
He said Ghana remains committed to macroeconomic stability and private sector-led growth under the Reset Agenda of President John Dramani Mahama, including digital public infrastructure reforms and fintech promotion to deepen financial inclusion.
“The ultimate purpose of economic transformation is to ensure the creation of quality jobs and improved standard of living for all,” he said.
With one in four people globally projected to be African by 2050, he asked whether the continent’s youth would become builders of globally competitive enterprises or remain consumers in an unequal digital world.
Dr Forson further said Africa’s global relevance would not be gifted but built through integration, industrialisation, digital transformation, energy security, strong institutions, and a new mindset of partnership.
“The next quarter of a century will ask two defining questions of Africa: Did we finally convert our potential into power and prosperity? Did we move from dependence to competitiveness?”
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