Every few years, Africa rediscovers the same truth and treats it like new: exporting raw materials keeps the continent poor. This message is once again at the center of debate at the African Union Executive Council meetings currently ongoing in Addis Ababa and at the Mining Indaba 2026. There, the founder of BUA group, a leading Nigerian conglomerate with investments in food, infrastructure, mining, and manufacturing across Africa, repeated a familiar call: Africa must move from raw extraction to industrial value addition. He is right. But an uncomfortable truth is still missing from the conversation. All the speeches calling for value addition are meaningless unless we ask a basic question: who is supposed to do it? The answer is not governments. Not international organizations. It is businesses. Value is added only when companies take risks, build factories, run production lines, and compete in markets. Policies, finance, and infrastructure can support this process, but they cannot replace it.

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In 2025, the United Nations classified 44 countries as Least Developed Countries (LDCs), 32 of which are in Africa. The UNCTAD Least Developed Countries Report 2025 examines the evolving geography of LDCs and asks a central question: can the services sector (now accounting for nearly half of GDP in many LDCs), become a genuine driver of structural transformation?

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