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<\/p>\nNovember 28, 2025<\/p>\n
Africa is the world’s second-largest, fastest-growing region with a GDP that could hit $7 trillion by 2035. The word \u2018potential\u2019 no longer applies\u2026and its leaders are getting frustrated with the description.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
By Chris Hayes*<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The emotion was clear in his voice and body language, as His Excellency Ryad Mezzour, Minister of Industry & Trade, Kingdom of Morocco, addressed the Africa Investment Roundtable (November 24) in Riyadh:\u00a0\u201cThey say that Africa \u2013 all of Africa \u2013 is\u00a0risky. More risky than Amazon, more risky than Tesla, more risky than global tech companies valued higher than entire economies. It\u2019s an attitude that means in Africa we have to do things perfectly and prove how good we are \u2013 that we are not a risk. We have to show that a continent of over one billion people can survive, and sell and do a good job, better even than a company selling electric cars whose profits have dropped 37% in a year. Stop kidding us \u2013 we are not risky. We have a future, we have a plan and we will execute it.\u201d<\/p>\n
His Excellency\u2019s withering rebuke of nervous investors was met with rapturous applause from an audience that clearly felt the same way.<\/p>\n
The Roundtable, held under the auspices of UNIDO\u2019s 21st\u00a0General Conference, brought together\u00a0government ministers, banks and development organizations\u00a0to\u00a0showcase how they\u2019re moving\u00a0from high-level declarations to concrete projects that address Africa\u2019s annual\u00a0$170bn infrastructure gap: from\u00a0corridor-based development to enhanced regulatory frameworks, and blended financing solutions.<\/p>\n
This infrastructure gap means that all too often, industry comes to a literal standstill. Every day, trucks carrying goods across Africa spend more time waiting at borders than they do actually moving. The continent urgently needs to build roads, ports and industrial zones that will transform its countries\u2019 economies. But its planning also needs to become more joined up \u2013 connecting farmers to markets, entrepreneurs to customers and young people to jobs. It is a question of turning Africa from a continent of raw materials into a continent of value creation; turning its immense promise into real factories, real jobs and thriving communities and its trade corridors into engines of industrial growth.<\/p>\n
One word in particular, was not welcome at the Roundtable: \u2018potential\u2019.<\/p>\n
Fatou Haidara, UNIDO\u2019s Deputy Director General, observed just how many times the \u2018potential\u2019 of Africa\u2019s natural resources, its young population, and its arable lands, are referenced. \u201cWe have to discuss how we transform this \u2018potential\u2019 into concrete project programs and accelerate the actions that lead to sustainable impact\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
The panel rose to the challenge, presenting initiative after initiative through which their countries and organizations are actively mobilizing strategic investment and partnerships to accelerate Africa’s industrial transformation.<\/p>\n
Mohammed Usman Abdul-Razaq, Senior Vice President, Capital Mobilization & Partnerships at the Lagos-based Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), spoke of the role his organization is playing in infrastructure delivery across Africa. With AFC’s investments in over 36 African countries, and disbursements of over $17 billion, the Corporation is taking great strides on job creation and industrial growth.<\/p>\n
It is a major investor and financier of the\u00a0Kano-Maradi Railway Project, a large infrastructure project connecting Nigeria and Niger which will enhance regional economic integration and trade between the two countries.\u00a0It is also the financing partner for the Lobito Corridor, which links critical minerals fields with an Angolan port.<\/p>\n
These projects, Abdul-Razaq said, emphasize the need for deep partnerships, especially with Middle Eastern partners, to scale such models and ensure projects go from ideas to reality.<\/p>\n
Reflecting the importance of the event, Gerd M\u00fcller, UNIDO\u2019s Director General, joined the meeting in person to give some impromptu remarks. He was bullish about the continent\u2019s industrial prospects. \u201cAfrica\u201d, he said, \u201cis the continent of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judging by the projects, initiatives \u2013 and passion \u2013 on display at the Investment Roundtable, Africa isn\u2019t just rising. It\u2019s ready.<\/p>\n
*Chris Hayes is a corporate sustainability and technology writer with over 20 years\u2019 experience supporting the global mining, energy and logistics sector<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"November 28, 2025 Africa is the world’s second-largest, fastest-growing region with a GDP that could hit $7 trillion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-161550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}