THE INDUSTRIALIZATION OF AFRICA IS A MUST
By Nimba Monnemu Tokpa, International Trade & Economics Analyst.
This picture here speaks volume regarding the African continent when it comes to its state of industrialization. We will keep saying Africa holds the largest portion of the world’s natural resources but if these resources for all kind are not beneficiating the Africans, it doesn’t make sense to brag about it. Many African nations in their current geographical size don’t have a full-service mineral and energetic industriy function from the extraction to the finished products. The majority of the economies of the African States are based on the export of raw materials. African nations can be more productive and sustainable through manufacturing and high-tech solution technologies. The full-fledged industrialization of Africa requires not only the necessity of low cost production but also a serious industrialization masterplan designed by Africans for Africans.
The political push for the industrial modernisation of Africa, or at the least the “biggest economies” ones ( South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Cote d’Ivoire, Algeria, Egypt, Angola, Kenya, Ghana, DR Congo, Sudan, Morocco, Cameroun…) will create an enormous demand for the manufacturing of all the mineral resources ( bauxite, copper, coltan, cobalt, etc…) in finished products which requires the African’s leadership to systematically intervene in the domestic markets in order to benefit and facilitate the economic dominance of African-owned companies. Each African nations with huge mineral deposits must construct Mineral Processing for Special Economic Zone (MPSEZ). This can be termed as “indigenous innovations”. Innovation, entrepreneurship and healthy and constructive workforce are the key ingredients for a dynamic economy growth that African leadership has to set a guideline action.
African manufacturing and technological investments need to be interpreted as building blocks of a serious and achieving political programme which will be entirely supported and guided by African regional and/or continental institutions for long term visions. But that won’t happen if African States in solidarity don’t build infrastructure that connect all the warp and welt of the continent. We need more railroad and highway inter-State systems to increase the intra-African trade. African States have to massively invest in specialized industry towns to boost their economies. Those specialized industrial towns can feature specific manufacturing sectors. They will play active roles nurturing economic growth with the sound management of our natural resources to packaged/manufactured products.
Africa Global News Publication
