Addis Ababa, February 16, 2025 (FMC) – Africa is emerging as the world’s next engine of global growth, driven by its youthful workforce, expanding markets and accelerating digital transformation, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Claver Gatete, said on Monday as the Ninth Africa Business Forum opened in Addis Ababa.
Addressing the high-level forum at Africa Hall under the theme “Financing the Future of Africa: Jobs and Innovation for Sustainable Transformation,” Gatete said global capital remains available but has become increasingly selective, flowing toward regions offering scale, future markets and long-term demand—conditions he said Africa is uniquely positioned to provide.
“Growth will emerge where the world’s youngest workforce lives, where urbanization is accelerating, where digital adoption is expanding and where new consumer markets are forming,” he said, describing Africa as a continent where economic transformation is already underway.
Gatete cited the African Continental Free Trade Area as a key driver of change, noting that it is creating a single market of more than 1.5 billion people, while digital platforms and startup ecosystems are expanding across the continent. He pointed to concrete examples, including youth-led cocoa processing in Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco’s automotive value chain and Ethiopia’s growing digital payments ecosystem, as evidence that Africa is beginning to export value, not just raw commodities.
Despite these gains, Gatete said Africa’s transformation remains constrained by structural bottlenecks, including a large infrastructure financing gap and persistent illicit financial flows. At the same time, he noted that the continent holds more than 1.1 trillion US dollars in domestic institutional capital through pension funds, insurance pools and sovereign assets.
“The paradox is not a lack of capital,” he said. “It is the lack of mechanisms that connect capital to bankable projects.”
He warned that Africa’s youth employment challenge has global implications, stressing that millions of young Africans enter the labour market each year. Productive employment, he said, could position Africa as the growth frontier of the century, while failure to deliver jobs could fuel instability beyond the continent.
Against this backdrop, Gatete said the Africa Business Forum is designed as a delivery platform to move from commitments to implementation by linking investors with viable projects and tracking progress through concrete mechanisms.
He also highlighted Africa’s strategic position in the global economic reorganization underway, particularly in green energy, digitalization and resilient supply chains, noting that the continent possesses critical minerals, data potential and human capital. However, he emphasized that development depends on processing, trading and financing these resources, not merely owning them.
To accelerate investment at scale, Gatete outlined four priority actions: mobilizing domestic capital through innovative financing instruments; strengthening credit ratings and African capital markets to reduce borrowing costs; fully implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area to unlock regional value chains; and investing in innovation, skills and data systems to enable youth participation in future industries.
He concluded by calling for a shift in global thinking on Africa, arguing that the cost of not investing in the continent will soon outweigh the perceived risks. He said the Economic Commission for Africa stands ready to support member states and partners through policy analysis, convening power and implementation partnerships to translate commitments into jobs, scaled enterprises and financed value chains.