Ruto’s UN pitch: Africa wants investment, not aid

By  Angela Oketch

Content Lead Health and Science

Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

• Ruto said Africa was coming to the global table with a proposition for shared prosperity rather than a plea for assistance.
• The President Ruto challenged the assumption that Africa must rely largely on foreign capital to finance its development.

In New York

President William Ruto has challenged the world to rethink its relationship with Africa, arguing that the continent should no longer be treated as a recipient of aid but as a partner offering minerals, markets, energy, food and investment opportunities.

Addressing the United Nations, Dr Ruto said Africa was coming to the global table with a proposition for shared prosperity rather than a plea for assistance.

“Distinguished delegates, Africa does not come to plead. We come with a proposal. This is not us anymore as we have the potential, and we have the proposal,” he said.

For decades, Africa’s engagement with the international community has largely been framed around aid, debt relief and demands for greater representation in global institutions.

But President Ruto said the continent’s economic potential had changed the equation.

He pointed to Africa’s vast mineral deposits, agricultural potential, renewable energy resources and youthful population, as well as a consumer market of more than 1.5 billion people.

“Our continent holds vast mineral wealth, immense agricultural potential, extraordinary renewable energy resources, and the world’s youngest population. We are a market of more than 1.5 billion people,” he said.

The Head of State argued that these resources should no longer be viewed primarily as commodities to be extracted and exported, but as the foundation for industrialisation on the continent.

“These are not merely African assets. Properly developed, they are part of the answer to the world’s search for food security, clean energy, resilient supply chains, and a new source of growth,” he said.

President Ruto’s argument was built around a simple shift: Africa must move from exporting raw materials to processing them locally and capturing more of their value.

“Africa is not a problem for the world to solve. Africa is part of the solution the world is already searching for,” he said.

Africa, he noted, often exports raw materials only to import finished products at much higher prices.

President Ruto cited moves by cocoa-producing countries to process more of their crop and by cotton-producing nations to develop garment manufacturing as examples of the shift he wants to see across the continent.

He also warned that Africa’s mineral wealth must not simply fuel another round of extraction under the banner of the global green transition.

Africa possesses deposits of minerals needed for batteries, solar panels and electric vehicles, but Ruto said the continent wanted to capture more of the manufacturing value associated with those resources.

“The clean energy transition must not become another extractive transition,” he said.

He cited Kenya’s plans for an oil refinery in Lamu as an example of the kind of investment and value addition he said Africa needs.

“In the next one week, we expect to break ground on the East African refinery in Lamu,” he said, describing it as a refinery capable of producing 700,000 barrels of oil a day and involving an investment of approximately $16 billion. 

“It represents the Africa we seek to build; adding value at home, creating jobs for our people, and building industries capable of serving continents and global markets,” he said.

President Ruto also challenged the assumption that Africa must rely largely on foreign capital to finance its development.

He pointed to more than $4 trillion held across African pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds and banks, arguing that more of this money should be channelled into infrastructure, manufacturing and energy.

But he said the continent’s challenge was not only about access to capital. It was also about influence over the institutions that determine how global finance works.

“Africa has 54 countries and nearly one in five people globally live on the continent, yet African countries remain marginal in decisions on global lending, borrowing costs and the rules governing international finance,” Dr Ruto said.

“We cannot carry substantial obligations under a system while remaining marginal in shaping its rules,” he said.

He further stated that Africa’s economic rise would also serve the interests of the rest of the world, particularly as countries grapple with supply-chain disruptions, food insecurity and the transition to cleaner energy.

“A more industrialised Africa expands global demand,” he said. “A more food-secure Africa strengthens global stability. A better-connected Africa diversifies global supply chains.”

President Ruto also said the disruptions caused by pandemics, wars and shipping crises had demonstrated the risks of relying on a small number of countries for critical goods.

“An industrialised Africa is not a favour to Africa. It is insurance for the whole global economy,” he said.

Follow our WhatsApp channel for breaking news updates and more stories like this.