From Earth to Industry, Tinubu Calls on West Africa to Unleash its Potential
President Bola Tinubu today delivered a stirring address at the inaugural West Africa Economic Summit (WAES) in Abuja, urging regional leaders to seize control of their economic destiny.
Speaking with conviction, President Tinubu emphasized that West Africa’s vibrant, youthful population, coupled with its vast natural resources, presents an unparalleled opportunity for transformative growth, but only if strategically harnessed. He warned that without deliberate investment in education, digital infrastructure, and innovative industries, this demographic strength could quickly become a burden.
The Nigerian leader, who also chairs ECOWAS, championed a vision of regional cooperation, stressing that no single nation can achieve true prosperity in isolation. He highlighted Nigeria’s ongoing commitment to skills development and youth empowerment, while passionately advocating for the dismantling of trade barriers that currently stifle intra-regional commerce, which astonishingly remains below 10 percent. “We must coordinate or collapse,” he declared, emphasizing the urgency of West Africa’s position in the global economic race.
President Tinubu then set his sights on a bold shift in economic strategy: moving beyond the mere export of raw materials. He passionately called for an end to the “pit to port” era, urging West African nations to prioritize value-added industries and local processing of their abundant mineral wealth. This, he asserted, is crucial to creating jobs, fostering technological advancement, and truly participating in the next industrial revolution, unlike previous ones where the continent was left behind.
Ultimately, President Tinubu tasked the summit’s diverse participants, from heads of state to business titans, with a shared mission: to build an investable, competitive, and resilient West Africa. He called for actionable outcomes from the summit, including a renewed commitment to easing business operations, enhancing infrastructure connectivity, and fostering innovative ideas that will uplift the region’s people from poverty to prosperity, driven not just by governments, but by the unleashed entrepreneurial spirit of its citizens.
