…Reveals That Africa Accounts For 12 Of 20 Fastest Growing Global Economies
DR AKINWUMI Adesina has said that the 24 billion dollars Dangote Petrochemicals Complex in Lagos signalled Africa’s potential to attract global capital for large and globally-competitive industrial platforms,
Adesina, the outgoing President of Africa Development Bank (AfDB) stated this at the 2025 Standard Chartered Bank Africa Summit recently held in Lagos.
Adesina said, the refinery, now supplying petroleum and petrochemicals to the Nigerian, other African and global markets showed Africa’s business viability and profitability in tilting global capital.
He underscored the need for African global corporates to be strongly supported with financing at scale, to establish global industrial platforms that will support Africa to be dominant players in critical areas in which it has comparative advantage.
NAN reports that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals is a 650,000 barrels per day (BPD) integrated refinery.
Located in the Lekki Free Zone of Ibeju Lekki Lagos, it is Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train facility.
To buttress Adesina’s position, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) on Tuesday announced that it signed a 1.35-billion-dollar financing facility in favour of the refinery.
The facility, according to the continental bank, is part of a larger, approximately 4-billion-dollar syndicated financing arrangement for Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Africa’s largest industrial conglomerate.
Afreximbank said the financing, one of the largest syndicated loans in recent African financial markets, will refinance capital expended on constructing the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals Complex.
Adesina also gave example of the 20-billion-dollar Liquified Natural Gas project in Mozambique, as another African business entity that attracted global capital for large and globally competitive industrial platforms.
The LNG project, according to him, attracted the largest foreign direct investment, when it was structured.
Other large corporates identified by Adesina includes: Goldfield Limited, one of the world’s largest gold mining firms, in South Africa with market capitalisation of 17.46 billion dollars.
Naspers Limited, a South African multinational internet, technology and multimedia holding company with market capitalisation of 14.56 billion dollars.
Others are, Vodacom Group with market capitalisation of 12.47 billion dollars and MTN Group with market capitalisation 10.99 billion dollars.
Adesina also revealed that, with Africa accounting for 30 per cent of all mineral reserves globally, the continent will shape the future of global energy transition.
According to him, with huge shares of critical minerals such as cobalt, platinum, manganese, the continent will shape the future of manufacturing of electric vehicles, mobile phones, computers and defense systems.
Adesina said that the rising and intense geopolitical jostling to access these critical minerals is already shaping global geopolitics in Africa.
Africa 12 of 20 Fastest Growing Global Economies
Dr Adesina also revealed in his presentation that that in 2025, Africa accounted for 12 out of 20 fastest growing economies of the world, stressing that Africa’s economic growth is projected to rise from 3.3 per cent in 2024 to 3.9 per cent in 2025, and to 4.0 per cent in 2026.
He added that, defying all odds, 21 African countries are expected to exceed 5 per cent growth in 2025, with some even exceeding 7 per cent.
Regrettably, the renowned economist said the GDP growth rate on a per capital basis in the continent, still falls way short of what is needed to achieve quantum leaps in inclusive growth and prosperity for its 1.4 billion people.
He said the gap informed the decision of the AfDB to launch its High 5 strategic programs 10 years back.
The programmes, according to him, are designed to, “light up and power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialise Africa; Integrate Africa; and Improve the Quality of Life of the people of Africa’’.
“I am delighted that in the past ten years under my Presidency, the High 5s of the African Development Bank impacted on the lives of over 565 million people.
Speaking on what informed the growth, Adesina identified rapid population growth across the continent.
He said, Africa, with the world’s largest youth population, spurred increased consumption of goods and services.
“The size of Africa’s consumer market is projected to increase from 1.4 trillion dollar in 2015 to over 2.5 trillion dollars by 2030,” he said, adding that Africa is critical to feeding the world, as 65 per cent of the uncultivated arable land left to feed the world, being in the continent.
According to him, what Africa does with its agriculture will determine the future of food in the world.
“The size of the food and agriculture market in Africa is estimated to rise to 1 trillion dollars by 2030. Vast opportunities exist for agribusinesses and Agri-tech companies to apply digital tools to raise productivity and incomes,” he said.
Akinwumi equally underscored the importance of expanding access to digital services.
He cited the example of collaborative effort between the AfDB and Mastercard, which would reach 300 million farmers with digital access to information and markets. (NAN)
