President William Ruto made that point clearly when he handed over the Comesa chairmanship to Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Nairobi, closing out Kenya's term at the helm of the regional bloc.
The handover came with a direct message. Ruto used the moment to call on Africa to lean harder into its own financial institutions rather than looking outward for development funding. The continent, he argued, needs to take greater responsibility for how it finances its own growth.
It is a conversation that keeps coming up across African leadership circles, and Ruto's parting words as Comesa chair suggest the region is ready to push it further. Whether Mnangagwa picks up that thread as he settles into the chairmanship is the question worth watching.
Originally published by AllAfrica.