Africa’s blueprint for the global economy

Somali Foreign Minister Abdisaid Muse Ali

Chairperson

Lomé Peace and Security Forum

Globalisation is not collapsing. It is being reconfigured. In Western capitals, long-standing commitments to free trade now sit beside strategic protectionism. Industrial subsidies and de-risking have replaced parts of the old rulebook. Resilience often means control.

Africa is taking a different path. It is not stepping back. It is repositioning through integration, production, and deliberate engagement on its own terms. This is a recalibration of the continent’s place in the global order.

External partnerships are evolving. Africa is engaging BRICS partners from a position of leverage. Deals with China, India, and Brazil are moving beyond turnkey projects toward joint ventures that link finance to technology transfer, skills development, and local content. Morocco is converting its phosphate base and expanding industrial parks into an EV battery platform, drawing cathode material plants and assembly lines that feed European and African markets. Namibia and Zimbabwe are asserting control over their lithium resources by restricting unprocessed exports to spur domestic processing. South Africa is positioning itself as a future green hydrogen exporter. This is not dependency by another name. It is selective reciprocity. The rise of new geopolitical platforms gives Africa room to negotiate on its terms as a co-architect of rules, not only a recipient of flows.

Momentum is also coming from below. In Lagos, Nairobi, and Dakar, tech firms are building payment rails, logistics platforms, and AI tools that cross borders faster than regulation. African fintech now draws the majority of the continent’s venture capital. Culture is an economic force as well. Afrobeats has a dedicated United States chart, and Rema’s “Calm Down” has passed one billion streams on Spotify. UNESCO estimates film and audiovisual industries support about five million jobs and contribute roughly five billion dollars to GDP. Swahili connects more than 200 million speakers and now has a World Kiswahili Day. A young population is pushing agendas on climate, digital access, and mobility. Civil society is shaping trade discussions, labour policy, and innovation ecosystems. This bottom-up energy is central to Africa’s re-entry into globalization.

Sovereignty in the twenty-first century is built. It rests on the capacity to set standards, finance projects, move goods, settle payments, secure data, and win disputes. It is produced in factories and ports, in power plants and data centres, in courts and standards bodies. It is constructed through integration, production, coordination, and clarity of purpose. For Africa, that means reliable power and regional inter-connectors, domestic mineral refining and processing, industrial zones linked to rail and deepwater ports, and rules of origin that boost local content. It means regional payment rails and settlement systems, secure digital identity, domestic cloud and data hosting, sound spectrum and cyber regulation, and institutions that work: transparent procurement, professional civil services, time bound commercial courts, active competition authorities, and statistics released on schedule.