Former President of African Development Bank (AFDB) Akinwumi Adesina have asked the African continent to translate its demographic strength, natural resources and expanding markets into productive capacity, prosperity.

He also called for a visionary and ethical leadership, deeper continental integration and investment in industrial capacity and technology to help Africa achieve a more prosperous and competitive future in the global economy.

Delivering a keynote address at the Broad Pool of Ideas (BPI) Foundation’s Iconic Leadership and Excellence Awards in Johannesburg, South Africa, he said Africa’s greatest asset is its people, saying the continent’s young population could become a major source of economic strength if supported by education, relevant skills, technology and opportunities to create businesses and jobs.

Adesina in a paper titled
“Africa’s Next Leap: Visionary and Ethical Leadership for an Integrated and Prosperous Africa in the Global Economy” urged African governments, universities and vocational institutions to prepare young people not only to use emerging technologies but also to develop them.

He highlighted artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, cybersecurity and data science as areas in which African talent should build capacity and compete.

Adesina also called for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to be treated as more than a trade arrangement, describing it as a potential industrial platform that could connect markets, encourage investment and give African companies the scale needed to compete internationally.

He said countries could build complementary production networks by combining their strengths in minerals, energy, processing and manufacturing.

In his view, the success of integration should be judged by the products and companies Africa creates, the value it retains and the competitiveness it achieves in global markets.

On industrialisation, Adesina pointed to Nigeria’s $20billion Dangote Refinery as an example of the scale of industrial investment possible in Africa.

He said the continent should develop more industrial champions across sectors such as automobiles and electric vehicles, batteries, steel, machinery, pharmaceuticals, medical technology, food processing, software and artificial intelligence.

He argued that Africa must move further along resource value chains—from extraction to processing, refining, manufacturing, research and innovation—rather than remain primarily a supplier of raw materials. Such a shift, he said, would strengthen skills, technological capabilities and industrial ecosystems.

Speaking on artificial intelligence, Adesina said the global race to develop advanced technologies was already under way and that Africa should aim to help build those technologies.

He called for investment in universities, laboratories, computing infrastructure and industrial ecosystems, as well as skills in semiconductors, robotics, advanced computing, AI, data science and cybersecurity.

Adesina stressed that technology and economic ambition is not enough without ethical leadership and strong institutions, adding that public power and resources must be used in the public interest, with transparency, accountability and due process underpinning decisions on public finances, infrastructure, mining agreements and strategic partnerships.

He said that national interest must stand above all other interests and urged leaders to assess decisions by whether they serve the nation, expand opportunity and create lasting value for future generations.

He also tasked governments to invest in people, connect markets, build competitive industries, support entrepreneurs and establish institutions that citizens can trust.

He called on African countries to act with ambition, discipline, imagination and integrity, saying the continent’s next leap would depend not on potential alone but on leaders choosing innovation, integration and public service.