Africa Must Build Industries to Escape Poverty – AfDB President Adesina
President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has urged African leaders to invest in industrial development as a sustainable path to job creation and poverty reduction, warning that continued reliance on exporting raw materials undermines the continent’s economic future.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC ahead of the end of his tenure in September, Dr. Adesina emphasized that Africa cannot depend on foreign aid or the goodwill of other nations. “When you export a raw material, that’s the door to poverty,” he stated, adding, “Benevolence is not a strategy—investment is a strategy.”
He stressed the need to unlock Africa’s industrial potential by attracting private capital and building value chains that create jobs and retain talent. “If you want to create more jobs, build industries,” he said, citing lithium-ion battery manufacturing in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a viable investment that is significantly cheaper than in the U.S., Poland, or China.
Dr. Adesina also reflected on his upbringing and how poverty shaped his leadership vision. “Inequality is not a theoretical concept for me. I lived it. Poverty is not statistics—it’s about real people, real communities needing access to basic services like water, electricity, and healthcare.”
