• WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says Africa accounts for only 3 per cent of global exports despite holding nearly 30 per cent of the world’s critical mineral reserves.
• She urges African countries to process raw materials locally and build regional value chains.
• Intra-African exports represented about 17 per cent of the continent’s merchandise exports in 2024.
• Nnamdi Azikiwe University Vice-Chancellor Bond Anyaehie says infrastructure and competitive local businesses are essential to AfCFTA’s success.

Africa accounts for just 3 per cent of global exports despite holding nearly 30 per cent of the world’s critical mineral reserves, highlighting the gap between the continent’s resource wealth and its participation in international trade.

World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, disclosed this on Monday at a conference on the geoeconomics of African states, integration, power and structural transformation in Abuja.

Represented by Dr Jan Yves Remy of International Trade and WTO, Okonjo-Iweala said Africa had the natural resources, youthful population and international market connections needed to benefit from changing global trade patterns.

However, she said the continent needed to strengthen its productive capacity and process more of its resources locally instead of exporting them mainly as raw materials.

“Africa must move beyond exporting raw materials to processing and manufacturing products locally to retain more economic value,” she said.

She identified cobalt, lithium, manganese, copper, nickel and graphite among the critical minerals found in significant quantities across Africa, arguing that local processing and manufacturing would allow countries to capture a greater share of the value generated from these resources.

THE ISSUES

Okonjo-Iweala described the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as an important instrument for expanding production and developing regional value chains.

However, intra-African exports accounted for only about 17 per cent of the continent’s merchandise exports in 2024, suggesting that trade between African countries remains limited despite efforts to establish a larger continental market.

She identified infrastructure gaps, weak institutions and non-tariff barriers as major obstacles to implementing the agreement.

She called for investment in roads, ports, electricity, shipping connections and trade finance, alongside more efficient customs procedures and predictable regulations to make cross-border commerce easier.

The WTO chief also urged African universities and WTO chairs to strengthen research, training and engagement with policymakers, saying intellectual capacity was necessary for the continent to increase its influence in global trade discussions.

WHAT’S BEING SAID

“The success of AfCFTA should be measured by Africa’s ability to source inputs, manufacture products, provide services and finance trade through indigenous institutions.” – Prof. Bond Anyaehie, Vice-Chancellor, Nnamdi Azikiwe University.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof. Bond Anyaehie, also called for stronger economic integration, industrialisation and infrastructure development to improve Africa’s competitiveness.

He warned that trade liberalisation without adequate infrastructure, or a continental market without competitive African businesses, would not produce meaningful economic transformation.

Anyaehie said African entrepreneurs needed to build stronger brands and take advantage of digital platforms to reach wider markets.

He cited Nigerian shoes produced in Aba and sold in Italy as an example of products that could lose their identity when exported, rebranded abroad and returned to African markets as foreign goods.

He also called on universities to contribute more directly to trade development through research, skills training and policy engagement, while strengthening partnerships with governments and industries.

The conference was organised by Nnamdi Azikiwe University’s National Centre for Regional Integration and Trade Research.

Africa’s challenge is not simply gaining access to international markets. It is building the industries, infrastructure and businesses needed to produce and sell more goods within the continent and globally.

The figures presented by the WTO chief show the gap between Africa’s mineral resources and its share of global exports, while the calls for local processing and stronger regional trade point to the work required to close it.

SOURCE: BizWatchNigeria.Ng