{"id":119942,"date":"2025-06-22T09:23:41","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T08:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=119942"},"modified":"2025-06-22T09:23:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T08:23:41","slug":"west-africa-must-turn-demography-minerals-into-wealth-tinubu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/west-africa-must-turn-demography-minerals-into-wealth-tinubu\/","title":{"rendered":"West Africa Must Turn Demography, Minerals into Wealth \u2013Tinubu"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Myke Agunwa, Abuja<\/div>\n
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President Bola Tinubu has urged West African leaders to harness the region’s youthful population and abundant natural resources for economic transformation through industrialisation, education, and innovation.<\/div>\n
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President Tinubu also called for urgent efforts to dismantle trade barriers across the subregion.<\/div>\n
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Delivering the opening address at the inaugural West Africa Economic Summit (WAES) in Abuja, Tinubu described the region’s vibrant, youthful population as its greatest asset.<\/div>\n
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“However, this demographic promise can quickly become a liability if not matched by investments in education, digital infrastructure, innovation, and productive enterprise,” he warned.<\/div>\n
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The president emphasised the need for regional cooperation, citing Nigeria’s investments in skills development, digital connectivity, and youth empowerment.<\/div>\n
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“No one country can do this alone. Our prosperity depends on regional supply chains, energy networks, and data frameworks. We must design them together\u2014or they will collapse separately,” he said.<\/div>\n
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He expressed concern that with intra-regional trade still below 10 per cent, West Africa must “coordinate or collapse” in the race for global economic relevance.<\/div>\n
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On infrastructure and investment, the Nigerian leader urged West Africa to move beyond the export of raw materials and prioritise value-added industries:<\/div>\n
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“Let us recognise that Africa was left behind in previous industrial revolutions. We cannot afford to miss the next one.<\/div>\n
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“Our rare minerals power tomorrow’s green technologies, yet being resource\u2014rich is not enough; we must also become value-chain smart and invest in local processing and regional manufacturing.<\/div>\n
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“The era of ‘pit to port’ must end. We must turn our mineral wealth into domestic economic value\u2014jobs, technology, and manufacturing.”<\/div>\n
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The Nigerian leader, who chairs the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, underscored the role of the private sector in driving transformation.<\/div>\n
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“The fundamental transformation will not come solely from government, but from unleashing our people’s entrepreneurial spirit. Governments must provide the right environment\u2014law, order, and market-friendly policies\u2014while the private sector drives growth.”<\/div>\n
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Calling on regional leaders to commit to clear deliverables, President Tinubu said:<\/div>\n
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“Our task is to find new and effective ways to invest in our collective future, improve the business climate, and create opportunities for our youth and women.<\/div>\n
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Let us emerge from this summit with actionable outcomes: a renewed commitment to ease of doing business, enhanced intra-regional trade, improved infrastructure connectivity, and innovative ideas that move our people from poverty to prosperity.”<\/div>\n
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He charged summit participants\u2014heads of state, policymakers, business leaders, and development partners\u2014with building an investable, competitive, and resilient West Africa by leading with vision, responsibility, and unity.<\/div>\n
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By Myke Agunwa, Abuja President Bola Tinubu has urged West African leaders to harness the region’s youthful population and abundant natural resources for economic transformation through industrialisation, education, and innovation.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWest Africa Must Turn Demography, Minerals into Wealth \u2013Tinubu - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/west-africa-must-turn-demography-minerals-into-wealth-tinubu\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"West Africa Must Turn Demography, Minerals into Wealth \u2013Tinubu - 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