Africa is losing an estimated 230 billion USD annually about 7.5% of its GDP by exporting crude oil while importing refined petroleum products. To address this imbalance, President William Ruto advocates for the local transformation of natural resources, supported by access to affordable energy. President Yoweri Museveni emphasizes reducing production costs through large-scale public investments in rail and river transport systems. The African Union supports this shift by calling for the creation of integrated economic corridors linking production zones to markets within the AfCFTA framework. This logistical synergy is seen as essential for industrializing the continent and preserving local jobs.
Africa faces a major structural challenge: turning its vast potential into tangible wealth. While the continent produces 10 million barrels of oil per day (about 10% of global production), it paradoxically spends around 90 billion USD annually importing 120 million tons of refined petroleum products. This revenue loss estimated at over 230 billion USD represents more than 7.5% of the continent’s GDP for this single resource. For Kenyan President William Ruto, competitiveness will necessarily depend on an ambitious energy transition.
“We can demonstrate leadership at the highest level to move this process forward. We must now move deliberately to pull these resources and position ourselves competitively in the global green manufacturing arena. However, we cannot achieve competitiveness without affordable energy, making large scale investment in renewable energy an urgent priority,and ensuring that the resources that we have in our region, including the oil we have. In Uganda, the little oil we have in Kenya, we must find the mechanism to fight against these resources and drive our industry.”
William Ruto, President of the Republic – Kenya
On his part, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni identifies production costs as the main barrier to economic emergence. He points specifically to transport, particularly railways and waterways as key structural costs that must be reduced in order to improve competitiveness and support industrial development.
“If you want your economy to succeed, you must identify the core cost pushers, which push costs in production. One of them is transport. Transport, especially the railway and the water transport. So, if you build the railway, you must build it with either government money, who are not looking for seek high and quick profits, but rather patient capital and private capital.”
Yoweri Museveni, President of the Republic – Uganda
The vision of a connected Africa is also promoted by Lerato Dorothy Mataboge, African Union Commissioner. She notes that Africa’s domestic financial base now exceeds trillions of dollars, but that the AfCFTA market suffers from a lack of physical connectivity.
“Africa is not constrained by potential. It is constrained by alignment. We have capital, and the CEO made the point very emphatically, we have the capital. Africa’s domestic capital market, capital base, now exceeds trillions of dollars. We have markets under the African continental free trade area, but these elements are not sufficiently connected to create productive capacity at scale. This is why we must fundamentally shift how we think about infrastructure. Infrastructure must move. Ports, railways, roads and digital networks must work together as integrated economic corridors that connect production areas to markets.”
Lerato Dorothy Mataboge, African Union (AU) Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy – Afrique du South Africa
This logistics revolution is now seen as a must for Africa to stop exporting its jobs along with its raw materials.
