Africa must move quickly to organise its industrial and trade policies or risk missing opportunities created by a rapidly changing global economy, the chair of the Africa Trade Chamber, Benedicta Lasi, said on Thursday.
Speaking at the inaugural African Trade Summit in Accra, Lasi told business leaders, policymakers and development finance institutions that the debate about Africa’s economic potential had shifted from aspiration to execution.
“The question before us now is not what Africa can be, but whether it will organise itself fast enough to claim what is already within reach,” she said.
The summit, convened by the Africa Trade Chamber, brings together private sector leaders, government officials and multilateral institutions, including Afreximbank, the African Development Bank and the OPEC Fund for International Development. It is positioned as a private-sector-led platform to support the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by promoting industrial development and investment across the continent.
Lasi said Africa was entering a critical moment as global supply chains are being reshaped, energy systems rebuilt and production relocated closer to markets and raw materials.
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“These shifts are happening now, with or without Africa,” she said, adding that the continent has the scale, resources and population to benefit but only if policies and capital deployment are aligned with industrial priorities.
Africa holds more than 30% of the world’s known mineral resources, including many critical to the global energy transition, yet accounts for less than 5% of global manufacturing output, she noted. Intra-African trade remains below 15 percent, far lower than levels seen in Europe or Asia.
“These outcomes are not accidents,” Lasi said. “They reflect how production is organised, how capital is deployed and how policy has been aligned or misaligned with industry.”
She also highlighted food imports as a symptom of structural weakness, noting that Africa spent more than $80 billion importing food last year, much of it produced from crops that could be grown locally.
The Africa Trade Chamber was created to address what Lasi described as persistent gaps between policy ambition and private-sector execution, and to serve as a complementary institution to the AfCFTA Secretariat by mobilising business-led solutions.
She called for stronger industrial policy coordination, deeper regional value chains and greater consistency in regulations to enable businesses to scale across borders.
Lasi welcomed ministers from Namibia and Ghana, as well as representatives of development finance institutions and private industry, urging participants to focus on practical outcomes rather than declarations.
“We meet at a time when global industry is being reorganised in real time,” she said. “If Africa does not shape these outcomes deliberately, the gaps we see today will remain visible for years to come.”
The African Trade Summit is expected to become an annual event, providing a platform for dialogue between governments, investors and businesses on accelerating intra-African trade and industrialisation under the AfCFTA framework.
