African Ambassador Demands Urgent Industrialization to End Poverty
The newly launched League of African Ambassadors (LAA) has issued a powerful call for Africa to immediately prioritize industrial development, warning that the continent’s persistent poverty is directly linked to its failure to shift from exporting raw materials to producing finished goods.
Speaking at the official launch of the LAA in Lusaka on October 14, 2025, the President of the LAA, His Excellency Ambassador Nwannebuike Ominyi, declared that the lack of value addition to natural resources “underpins the continent’s poverty and underdevelopment.”
End to Blame Game and Self-Reliance
Ambassador Ominyi insisted that African nations must stop dwelling on past grievances and actively take responsibility for their economic future.
“We have blamed the West for too long; we have lamented the days of our colonisation far enough,” he stated. He continued with a forceful analogy: “It is not up to the slave owner to free the slave; it is the duty of the one enslaved to imagine a better future and to then find his objective realities repugnant enough that he happily dies in pursuit of his freedom.”
Read Also:
The LAA President announced that the League will use its diplomatic strength to accelerate Africa’s industrialization by mobilizing global partnerships and investments. “We stand ready to deploy our diplomatic expertise in every necessary regard,” he affirmed.
Commending Dangote and Protecting Local Products
As a benchmark for achieving value addition, Ominyi hailed the milestone set by Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Group, for establishing the world’s largest single refinery in Nigeria, calling it a “significant achievement for Africa’s energy needs.” He also acknowledged the Nigerian government for creating the enabling environment for the massive project, noting that several African countries are already engaging with the facility for petroleum supply.
Ominyi stressed the need for protective measures, insisting that “Africa must provide made-in-Africa goods the necessary protection and patronage in order to win the commodity war in the global market.”
He also praised the outcome of the African Renaissance Retreat held in Kigali in September 2024, which brought together top African business leaders to chart a course for the next industrial revolution on the continent. The LAA pledged its full partnership to what it termed an initiative capable of driving a “value addition revolution and prosperity in Africa.”
By PRNigeria
