Africa must build industries, not just export raw materials — Asiedu Nketia

Johnson Asiedu Nketia, National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has called on African countries to end their longstanding dependence on exporting raw materials, urging the continent to build industries that transform its natural resources into technology, innovation and greater economic value.

Speaking at the Third Meeting of the Standing Committee of the International Movement for the Freedom of Nations in Russia on Wednesday, July 8, 2026, he said Africa’s vast reserves of critical minerals should serve as the foundation for industrialisation rather than continue to fuel the economic growth of other countries.

“The 21st century must not become another chapter in which Africa supplies strategic resources while others capture the greater share of the value they create,” he said.

“The continent must become an active participant in the industries, technologies and value chains that will define the future.”

Mr Asiedu Nketia said the renewed global competition for critical minerals and emerging markets presented Africa with an opportunity to reshape its economic future.

He maintained that the continent’s strategic resources should no longer merely support the ambitions of industrialised nations but instead drive domestic manufacturing, technological innovation and sustainable economic transformation.

“My position remains firm: the 21st century must not become another chapter of raw material extraction. True power will come only when we possess the industrial capability to transform our resources into home-grown technology, knowledge and value,” he said.

The NDC Chairman said the central question facing Africa was not whether the rest of the world was interested in its natural resources, but whether African countries would participate in the emerging global economy as equal partners.

“The question before Africa is not whether the world is interested in our resources. Every nation pursues its interests. The real question is whether Africa will participate in this new era of global competition as an equal partner or merely as a supplier of inputs for the ambitions of others,” he said.

Mr Asiedu Nketia also argued that political independence alone was insufficient to guarantee prosperity, stressing that African countries must strengthen their industrial capacity and economic institutions to translate sovereignty into sustainable development.

“The unfinished task before us is to ensure that sovereignty is matched by capability and that freedom is matched by common prosperity,” he said.