Nigeria President, Bola Hamed Tinubu has lamented the cost of borrowing by African countries, submitting that this has made it difficult for Africa manufacturers to compete meaningfully with their Europe, Asia and North America counterparts.
He said this on Wednesday ,during the Africa Forward Summit held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, explaining that the global financial architecture is largely skewed against Africa, leaving the continent at the receiving end of development.
Tinubu quarried”how an African manufacturer can compete with a competitor in Europe, Asia, or North America when the cost of borrowing in our nations is five to ten times higher?”
Revealing that Nigeria will spend $11.6 billion on debt servicing in 2026, Tinubu said the amount is half of the projected revenue for this year.
Contained in a statement by Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the President was further quoted as saying that Nigeria would spend about $11.6 billion on debt servicing in 2026, representing nearly half of projected government revenue.
“Every single dollar that leaves our treasury to pay punitive interest rates is a dollar that did not go into our steel sector, our textile mills, our agro-processing plants, or our digital industries.
“We export raw minerals, crude oil, and agricultural commodities, and we import processed goods at a premium. This pattern is not an accident.
“It is the product of a global financial architecture that starves our industries of affordable capital, tolerates massive illicit financial flows, and imposes policy constraints that our competitors themselves never observed when they built their own industrial bases,” he said.
The summit, co-hosted by Kenyan President William Ruto and French President Emmanuel Macron, drew leaders and senior officials from more than 30 African countries.
Among those who delivered opening remarks were United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and Chairman of the African Union Commission Mahamoud Ali Youssouf.
President Tinubu said Africa’s persistent export of raw materials and importation of finished goods at premium prices was the direct consequence of an international system structured against the continent’s industrial development.
According to him, Africa’s share of global manufacturing value remains below two per cent despite decades of political independence.
The President stressed that Nigeria had undertaken painful but necessary economic reforms through sovereign decisions rather than external impositions.
He listed the removal of fuel subsidies, unification of exchange rates, recapitalisation of the banking sector with over $3.4 billion and Nigeria’s exit from the Financial Action Task Force grey list as part of the reforms already implemented.
President Tinubu said the measures had helped deliver a declining debt-to-GDP ratio projected at 32.3 per cent in 2026, stronger external reserves of $45.5 billion and renewed investor confidence.
He, however, lamented that even reforming African economies remained trapped by an unfair financial system.
“How can an African manufacturer compete with a competitor in Europe, Asia, or North America when the cost of borrowing in our nations is five to ten times higher?
“How can we build cross-border industrial value chains under the African Continental Free Trade Area when our infrastructure projects face a financing gap deepened by the very institutions meant to bridge it?”
Declaring that the present financial system had become “an instrument of industrial disarmament for Africa,” President Tinubu said: “Nigeria is not asking for charity.
“We are demanding a financial system that intentionally enables Africa to industrialise; to process its own minerals, refine its own crude oil, manufacture its own pharmaceuticals, and compete fairly in global markets.”
The President advocated stronger regional cooperation in maritime security and blue economy development, describing ocean governance as central to Africa’s future prosperity
He pledged that Nigeria would intensify regional coordination by making its Deep Blue Project maritime intelligence infrastructure available as a shared data hub for willing Gulf of Guinea countries.
