President Bola Tinubu has called on the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to play a more decisive role in accelerating Africa’s industrialisation by mobilising the continent’s vast human, financial and natural resources to drive economic transformation.
The President made the call on Tuesday at the State House, Abuja, while receiving a delegation from Afreximbank led by its President and Chairman of the Board, Dr George Elombi.
Tinubu said Africa must move beyond discussions about development and focus on practical actions that promote industrial growth, expand intra-African trade, create jobs, add value to raw materials and improve the living standards of its people.
He stressed that the continent possesses enormous economic potential but must stop exporting raw materials without local processing and manufacturing.
According to the President, Africa’s rich deposits of strategic minerals, including lithium, should be harnessed to support local industries such as battery production and other manufacturing ecosystems, with Afreximbank providing the investment guarantees needed to unlock private sector participation.
“The conscience and the future of Africa depend on what you and your team can do, and the time has come for Africans to start building the continent together,” Tinubu said.
The President also defended his administration’s economic reforms, including the removal of fuel subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market, describing them as difficult but necessary measures to eliminate corruption and place the economy on a sustainable path.
Highlighting his administration’s economic agenda, Tinubu said the establishment of the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development was aimed at transforming the longstanding farmer-herder conflict into economic opportunities through investments in livestock, agriculture and agro-processing.
He further urged Afreximbank to deepen collaboration with the Bank of Agriculture by financing agricultural value chains, particularly in cocoa, palm kernel, palm oil and other export-oriented crops capable of boosting industrialisation and job creation.
Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh, described the administration’s Eight-Point Renewed Hope Agenda as a blueprint for economic diversification, saying investments in solid minerals, manufacturing, agriculture, oil and gas, the digital economy and value-added exports are laying the foundation for long-term growth.
Speaking during the visit, Afreximbank President Dr George Elombi thanked President Tinubu for supporting his emergence as the bank’s president and disclosed that the institution has invested between $15 billion and $20 billion in Nigeria over the past five years across trade, healthcare, agricultural processing and value-chain development.
He also announced that the bank has committed $2 billion to revitalise Nigeria’s cotton and garment industry and is supporting major infrastructure projects, including the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Kano-Maradi railway line.
Elombi further invited the President to visit the African Medical Centre of Excellence in Abuja, describing it as part of the bank’s broader efforts to reduce medical tourism across Africa.
