A new economic mantra has taken hold in Washington, Brussels, and Beijing: “sovereignty.” Whether framed as national security, strategic autonomy, or state capitalism, it signals the reassertion of political and national security logic over economic logic across the world’s major powers. For Africa, this turn to sovereignty is not a distant spectacle. It is a decisive test.
The continent enters this moment of global fragmentation with unprecedented assets: A young and growing labor force, expanding consumer markets, and — crucially — a dominant share of raw critical minerals that underpin the energy transition and next-generation defense technologies: cobalt, lithium, and rare earths.
Yet these advantages could turn into a curse if Africa fails to break with a familiar pattern — that of being a passive supplier of raw materials in a system designed by others, for others.
About the author
Rabah Arezki
Rabah Arezki is a former chief economist and vice president at the African Development Bank and former chief economist of the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa region. He is also the former chief of commodities in the International Monetary Fund’s research department. He is a professor and research director at the CNRS-CERDI, a member of the FERDI's chair working group on the international architecture of financing for development, and a senior fellow at FERDI and Harvard Kennedy School.
Search for articles
Most Read
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5