The African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina stressed in a letter read on his behalf, at the African Union Extraordinary Summit the need for the African continent to depend on value-added final products for prosperity.
Adesina said in his letter that free trade zones have brought prosperity around the world not through trade in low-value products, but through industrial production, emphasizing that Africa’s prosperity should no longer depend solely on exports of raw materials.
In order to transform the agricultural sector in the African continent and open up the agribusiness market, the bank was investing US$25 billion which is expected to reach US$1 trillion by 2030, he added.
The African Development Bank President advocated turning cocoa beans into chocolate, cotton into textiles and clothing, and coffee beans into coffee brewed throughout Africa.