An $8.6 trillion opportunity is sitting right beneath Africa's feet, and experts say the continent is still leaving it in the ground, or worse, shipping it away.
The argument is straightforward: Africa continues to export raw, unprocessed minerals and commodities, and that single habit is costing the continent an extraordinary amount of wealth. Experts say that if Africa were to stop sending out its resources in their rawest form and instead process them locally before export, that $8.6 trillion in undeveloped resource value could finally be unlocked.
The logic behind the push is not new, but the number attached to it makes it harder to ignore. Value addition, the process of refining, manufacturing, and transforming raw materials into finished or semi-finished goods before they leave the continent, keeps more money, more jobs, and more economic power at home.
The conversation around resource sovereignty has been growing louder across the continent, from policy tables to pan-African trade forums. The question now is whether governments and industries will move from talking about processing local resources to actually building the infrastructure and policies that make it happen.
Originally published by BusinessDay.