The 4th Deputy Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS Parliament, Billay Tunkara, said Africa and ECOWAS to be specific must bridge the “dislocation” between its raw material extraction and industrial processing to unlock widespread job opportunities in the continent.
He disclosed this while speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the regional bloc’s delocalised meeting in Monrovia, which is focused on West Africa’s unemployment crisis.
Mr. Tunkara said African nations have historically lost out on significant employment benefits by exporting unprocessed resources, noting that since the colonial era, and even in the post-independence period, African countries have primarily served as sources of raw materials – from minerals to oil.
According to him, the resources are transported and processed in Western nations leading to jobs generation for their citizens while West Africa continues to grapple with high unemployment rates.
He stressed that allowing the harvesting of minerals at the “primary stage” without adding value within the continent is not in Africa’s long-term interest.
The 4th Deputy Speaker called for a “bold step” from African countries to forge a crucial “nexus” between the primary, secondary, and tertiary stages of production.
He argued that actively pursuing value addition across these stages is fundamental for creating the necessary employment opportunities.
“Each stage will add value, you also adding employment,” Mr. Tunkara stated, emphasising that every layer of the production process offers distinct avenues for job creation that would ultimately benefit the region’s workforce.
He concluded by urging leaders across ECOWAS to “amplify our voices” to bring about this critical change.
