Vice President Kashim Shettima has delivered a blunt ultimatum to African leaders: stop shipping the continent’s wealth abroad as cheap raw materials and start building industries that turn resources into real money.
In a fiery address on Friday at Benin’s Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone (GDIZ), Shettima lamented that Africa—home to vast reserves of cotton, cashew, soya, and minerals—barely scrapes one per cent of the global cotton industry’s whopping $370 billion valuation. That, he said, is an economic tragedy of epic proportions.
“Africa must take its rightful place at the global trade table—not as a supplier of dirt-cheap commodities, but as a manufacturing powerhouse,” Shettima declared.
The Vice President, leading a delegation of six state governors on a fact-finding mission, toured Benin’s integrated facilities where raw cotton is transformed into yarn, fabric, and finished garments right on African soil. He hailed the GDIZ as “an African success story” and vowed that Nigeria is taking notes—hard.
President Tinubu’s administration, Shettima revealed, is already rolling out eight agro-industrial zones across eight Nigerian states, with a mission to replicate Benin’s model. The goal? Revive Nigeria’s dead textile industry, create millions of jobs, supercharge non-oil exports, and spark an economic renaissance from the grassroots.
“Be rest assured we have learnt a lot of lessons through this visit, and we are going to replicate a lot of that in Nigeria,” he promised, flanked by the governors of Kwara, Imo, Katsina, Plateau, Zamfara, and Jigawa.
The message was crystal clear: Africa’s resources belong in Africa, processed by Africans, and sold to the world at a premium. The clock is ticking, and Shettima says the Renewed Hope Agenda is determined to turn Nigeria and by extension, the continent—into an industrialized giant.
No more exporting birthright as raw dirt. The era of value addition has begun.
