Industrializing Africa through Tree Commodities

In the forward section of the elite book “Industrialise Africa: Strategies, Policies, Institutions, and Financing”, the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) notes, “The secret of the wealth of nations is clear: developed nations add value to everything they produce, while poor nations export raw materials. Africa must quit being at the bottom of global value chains and move to rapidly industrialise, with value addition to everything that it produces. Africa must work for itself, its people, not exporting wealth to others” (AfDB 2017). This statement captures a decade of evolving calls and actions to promote endogenous African industrialisation and leverage enormous opportunities the continent stands to offer. The AfDB,within its mandate as a development bank for the continent, places African industrialisation as one of its five accelerators for African development and growth. It seeks to support African industrialisation by assisting national governments in increasing national production and adding value to everything they produce. The bank launched six flagship programs to foster its agenda across different sectors.

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