Africa’s Wealth Gap: Experts Demand AfCFTA-Driven Industrialization to Reclaim Continent’s Legacy
Francis
HARARE, ZIMBABWE – The African continent, blessed with immense human and natural resources, finds itself at a pivotal moment, grappling with a stark economic reality. New analysis highlights a profound disparity in per capita wealth, with African figures increasing only marginally compared to the exponential growth seen in developed continents over the past decade.
This troubling trend, which sees Africa’s average per capita wealth lag significantly behind—$\$6,394$ estimated for Africa in 2025 compared to $\$61,752$ for developed continents—is driving a critical new push for economic transformation. Pan-African scholars are now uniting to declare that the solution is a "Transformative AfCFTA-driven industrialization program"
For decades, initiatives like the Lagos Action Plan, the Abuja Treaty, and the broader Africa Agenda 2063 have aimed to spur growth5. Yet, the socioeconomic, cultural, scientific, and technological depression across Continental Africa remains pronounced6. The core problem, according to the Africa Change Development Studies Institute / ASC AfCFTA Studies Centre (AC DSIASC-AfCFTA Centre), is the speed of wealth generation. While Africa is developing, the per capita wealth gap with other regions continues to gallop away.
Zimbabwe is a case in point, with its GNI per capita only marginally increasing from $\$1,710$ in 2015 to $\$3,850$ in 2025.
The panacea, experts argue, lies in the systematic adoption and implementation of an AfCFTA-driven industrialization plan focused specifically on value chains, value addition, and climate change compliant industrialization. This strategy is explicitly designed to integrate marginalised rural-urban and resettled communities across Zimbabwe and the wider Southern and Sub-Saharan region into the digital global economy.
To kickstart this ambitious agenda, the AC DSIASC-AfCFTA Centre has launched an advocacy "2025 ASC AfCFTA Enlightenment Summer School". This initiative is a direct response to the critical need for development-oriented dialogue among key players: from Government Ministries and Industry to Traditional Leaders and academia.
The one-week intensive Master Class short courses, which will be delivered in a hybrid mode (both face-to-face and online) across multiple venues in Zimbabwe, including Harare, Mutare, and Bulawayo, aim to impart essential skills for a "Transformative Generation Altering AfCFTA Studies"
Modules range from the Afrocentric definition of the industrialization programme to modern competencies like AI and Cyber security 14141414, and crucial development areas such as Disaster Management, Climate Change, Humanitarian Emergencies, and Agro-industrial parks.
The Centre is also appealing for sponsorship to support these complex Master Classes, urging philanthropists and progressive circles to champion an Afrocentric Pan-African Transformative AfCFTA biased industrialization.
This comprehensive approach is designed to be a Strategic Tool for Accelerated growth and development 18, culminating in the major 2025 ASC AfCFTA Investment, Growth and Development, Legacy Reclamation Hybrid International Conference19. The ultimate goal is nothing less than the reclamation of Africa's logical legacy destination and renaissance in a heavily contested digital world.
From the bustling corridors of power to the resettled communities of Southern Africa, the message is clear: the time for incremental change is over. The continent is mobilising to harness the AfCFTA as the engine for the transformative, industrial growth it urgently needs.
