At the forefront of promoting smart industrial policies and mobilising infrastructure development funding for Africa, the African Development Bank (AfDB.org) on Africa Industrialization Day 2020, urges the continent to accelerate industrialization for the transformation of African economies.
The African Development Bank counts Industrializing Africa as one of its High-5 key strategic aims, critical for the transformation of African economies.
“Industrialization, where we add value to what we competitively produce and then export, and also trade among ourselves on the back of the AfCFTA within a market of 1.3 billion people, should be prioritized and delivered,” said Solomon Quaynor, the Bank’s Vice President, Private Sector, Infrastructure & Industrialization, in a message marking Africa Industrialisation Day.
Quaynor stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic had sharpened the need to accelerate industrialization and urged a greater role for the private sector, including as a partner to the public sector.
“Resilience is key, and that means no matter the external shocks in the future, we should rebuild so that our people, particularly youth and women who head our households, have jobs and better incomes,” he said.
The Bank continues to support operationalisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). In August 2019, the institution extended a $ 4.8 million grant to support the establishment in Ghana of the AfCFTA Secretariat.
