A focus on industrial goods and quality services is bound to promote African industrialization trajectory and accelerate the advancement of manufacturing, value addition and supply chain development through investment, management and security of critical infrastructure to deliver on the deep economic recovery of Africa, post-COVID-19, along multisector platforms. This will in turn provide employment opportunities for the continent’s growing youth population. The research papers will be presented at the various parallel plenary sessions leading up to the actual Bootcamp and during the Summit Session.
Building production capacities especially in the manufacturing sector and using technologies support to power supply value chain will provide the African Market an inclusive and people driven aspirations to supply and demand side value chains. The purpose for the establishment of the Africa Industrialization Group Inc. apart from private sector industry management consulting, investment and increase technology capacity linkage is also design systems that will constantly promote research in the area of industrialization on the continent. Above all, AI-Group Inc. designed systems that will dwell on an enabled capacity in order to prepare pan-African private sector linkage and market accessibility towards addressing employability, wealth-creation, enterprise infrastructure and industrial relations, and mindset-change challenges that are embattling Africans.
Committing to Africa’s industrial Re-programming
The campaign to transform Africa and set it on a path to Industrialization is seen as a game changer and most anticipated by a population rife with poverty, unemployment, untapped resources among others. The Industrialization of Africa no doubt has created strong stakeholder commitment to forge enabling capacity to invent prosperity, new jobs and better incomes for all within the African continent.
In fact, the contribution of Africa’s manufacturing sector to the continent’s gross domestic product actually declined from 12% in 1980 to 11% in 2013, where it has remained stagnant over the past few years, according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
The continent over the past years has witness declines in virtually all spheres of its economy due to the covid19 pandemic which prompted the postponement of the Summit on Industrialization and Economic diversification which was initially scheduled to hold from the 20th-24th 2021.
Suffice to say Africa is ripe for industrialization, Africa can be the new Europe, this is as the economic future of Africa lies in deeper continental economic integration, it also depends on structural transformation.
Economic experts like Nigeria’s Kinglsey Moghalu believes industrialization and economic diversification are key elements of a structural transformation. Indeed, Africa deserves nothing less than a successful outcome of the African Union Summit on Industrialization and Economic Diversification.
In the context of Agenda 2063, structural transformation means diversifying the sources of economic growth and sustainable development in a way that promotes higher productivity, resulting in sustained and inclusive economic growth.
It also means supporting the development of industries that increase the impact of the existing sources of comparative advantage and enhance Africa’s global competitive position.
COVID-19 Pandemic: Economic and Post-Economic Disruption
There is no gain saying that the advent of COVID-19 in 2020 has posed the most formidable risk to the smooth operationalization of the AfCFTA, given its disruptive nature to business and commerce, whilst at the same time also put a check on the vulnerability of African economies, preventing delays in the launch date of the free trade area.
Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic has further heightened the risks of perpetuating the continent’s trade and business vulnerability globally, with most commodity-dependent nations. While COVID-19 is creating a significant economic and health crisis, it also presents an invaluable opportunity for the continent to re-configure its development narrative towards prioritization of initiatives that foster to accelerate Africa’s industrialization.
COVID-19 and its attendant disruption of global supply chains have brought to the fore the urgency and significance of driving industrialization in the continent. More fundamentally, the pandemic has openly exposed the hollowness of African economies on several fronts, including the fragility and weakness of Africa’s industrial capabilities.
Industrialization as a Wheel for Sustainable Development in Africa
Industrial Revolution always led to unprecedented expansion in wealth and financial well-being, while increasing Labour specialization and allowed cities to support larger populations, motivating a rapid demographic shift. This is what Africa will experience with the industrialization and economic diversification.
The African Union Summit on Industrialization and Economic Diversification that was held in Niamey, Republic of Niger from 18 to 25November, 2022 among numerous comparatives highlighted Africa’s renewed determination and commitment to Industrialization as one of the central pillars in attaining the continent’s economic growth and development goals, as articulated in the African Union and UN’s Agenda 2063 and 2030 respectively.
The Summit programming unlock the evolution of a vibrant pan-African enterprise and capital base prospects that will unleash an inclusive and sustainable industrialization pathway that carries along with the participation of all economic agents, including SMEs, youth, and women in the generation of national wealth and creation of jobs as well as expansion of entrepreneurship opportunities for Africa’s populations.
One of the key lessons for the Africa Industrialization Group Inc./Holdings LTD and its daughter consortiums, is to launch a pan-African private sector synergies with relevant private sector stakeholders that will drive the outcomes of the summit. The impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic is expected to continue driving the urgent need for bold actions to empower transformative change in key economic pillars such as Industrialization.
At the summit this year, heads of state and governments met where important declarations were made, that since set the motion for the beginning of the process of high-level political resolution and commitment towards accelerating Africa’s Industrialization alongside advancing the full implementation and realization of sustainable and inclusive development premised on the AfCFTA provisions.
The AI-Group Inc./Holdings LTD is ambitious that, it will begin the creating systems and strategies on the Niamey-Niger summit’s outcomes – which is expected to be action-oriented, in order to accelerate industrialization and Economic Diversification of Africa.