BY SIFISO NHLABATSI
MBABANE- Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini has called for a fundamental shift in the African mindset, saying the continent must move from participating in economies shaped elsewhere to owning and controlling its industries.
The Prime Minister made the call while addressing the Africa Oil Week (AOW) Energy Summit in Accra, Ghana, where he spoke on “The Era of Indigenous Operators: Technology, Capital and the Future of African Energy Leadership”.
The Prime Minister said the deepest transformation required on the continent was not merely financial or technological, but intellectual.
He said African enterprise, technology and expertise were too often regarded as unproven until they had received validation from outside the continent.
“This must change not by lowering our standard of excellence, but by creating the conditions in which African enterprise can meet it,” Dlamini said.
He said Africa needed to build an environment where governments deliberately supported local businesses, financial institutions were prepared to finance African enterprises and universities focused on solving African problems.
According to the Prime Minister, the continent also needed to raise a generation that aspired to build and own industries rather than simply seek employment within industries owned by others.
He said Africa needed to make a decisive transition from participation to ownership, extraction to beneficiation and dependency to capability.
The Prime Minister argued that changing the mindset would require practical interventions rather than motivational rhetoric.
He said governments should use public procurement strategically to create opportunities for African companies, while financial institutions should become more willing to provide capital to indigenous businesses.
Universities and research institutions, he added, should be encouraged to develop solutions responding directly to African challenges.
Dlamini said Africa possessed enormous natural resources and human potential, but these advantages would remain limited unless Africans developed the knowledge and enterprise needed to convert them into value.
“Resources alone will not deliver our future. They only become wealth when knowledge and enterprise transform them into value,” he said.
The Prime Minister also pointed to Ghana as an example of African expertise that could offer lessons to other countries.
He said the Eswatini delegation had met with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation the previous day and that he had been impressed by its experience and expertise across the energy value chain.
Dlamini said the corporation provided a useful model for the development of Eswatini’s energy sector.
He stressed that Africa should not lower its standards in an effort to promote indigenous companies. Instead, local businesses should be given opportunities to compete, develop expertise and ultimately become globally competitive.
The Prime Minister said Africa’s young population presented an opportunity to fundamentally reshape the continent’s economic future.
He urged leaders and entrepreneurs to create an environment where Africans could become owners of technology, capital and productive enterprises.
He said the continent could no longer afford a model where it remained primarily a source of raw materials while importing finished products and technology.
The Prime Minister said the time had come for Africa to build its own capabilities and ensure that economic growth translated into lasting value for its people.
He challenged delegates to leave the Accra summit with more than discussions, urging them to begin building the era of indigenous African operators.
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(Courtesy Pic)
