By Akeem Salau

At the 2025 Africa CEO Forum held in Abidjan, a resounding message emerged from across the event’s high-level panels and closed-door sessions: Africa must stop exporting potential and start exporting prosperity not in the future, but now.

As global supply chains realign and international capital seeks resilient investment destinations, Africa stands at a historic inflection point. The continent is increasingly being seen not just as a source of raw materials but as a potential hub of value creation and industrial transformation. Realizing this potential, however, requires more than optimism. It demands bold policy decisions, access to strategic and patient capital, stronger intra-African partnerships, and a renewed focus on homegrown ambition.

These themes were central to a key panel session titled “The Cost of Capital Crisis: How Can African Businesses Turn Geopolitical Shifts to Their Advantage?” where industry leaders debated how African corporates could leverage global changes to unlock capital and climb the value chain.

“Africa is suffering, really, for a lot of the problems we have. We pay a significant premium compared to developed markets,” one panelist noted. “That is driven by perceived high-risk potential, macroeconomic volatility, inflation, and currency fluctuations. And yes, it is unfair.”

The disparity is stark. While African nations grapple with elevated risk premiums, other emerging economies with similar macroeconomic challenges — including Argentina, Brazil, and the Philippines often enjoy more favorable borrowing terms. Analysts argue that in Africa, investment risk is frequently shaped more by outdated narratives than by present-day data.

Still, examples of progress abound.

In Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, governments are enacting policies to localize cocoa processing and reduce reliance on raw exports. The move aims to increase export revenue, create jobs, and stabilize foreign reserves by retaining more value within their economies.

Benin is similarly transitioning from being a raw cashew exporter to building local processing capacity. In Ethiopia, an ambitious industrial strategy is positioning the country as a regional manufacturing hub.

These are not isolated efforts, but signs of a broader continental shift toward value addition.

Yet, despite these strides, capital access remains a barrier. African corporates continue to face high financing costs, hampering efforts to industrialize and scale.

Financial institutions like Coronation Merchant Bank are working to shift this narrative. Over the past year, the bank has supported major corporates in Nigeria through capital market transactions — from commercial papers to bond issuances — aimed at unlocking long-term capital in a challenging environment.

“These aren’t just deals,” said a Coronation representative. “They are trust-building mechanisms. Each successful issuance affirms the investability of African enterprise.”

Coronation’s work highlights a broader principle: African financial institutions must take the lead in mobilizing local capital for local transformation. This involves not just funding businesses, but redesigning capital frameworks to match African realities — including equity-based instruments, blended finance, and more inclusive lending structures.

Trade policy was also a focus at the forum. Experts noted the backlash East African countries faced when restricting second-hand clothing imports under AGOA, as well as Indonesia’s legal battles over localizing nickel processing. These cases underscore the need for African industrial policy to be accompanied by strategic diplomacy and coalition-building.

Ultimately, panelists agreed that Africa’s most important shift must be internal. African businesses must transition from being participants in the global economy to becoming architects of it defining what gets financed, by whom, and to whose benefit.

“New lenders will emerge China, India, the Gulf states. But the real shift happens when African corporates define the terms of engagement,” said one panelist.

The future of African industrialization, speakers emphasized, depends on building institutions that understand African risk and are confident in African returns. If Africa can capture even a fraction of the value it currently exports, the continent will no longer be seen as a frontier market it will be a factory floor, a processing powerhouse, and a digital engine of growth.

As one speaker concluded, “We must believe in what we build. Confidence, backed by competence, is Africa’s greatest export.”