Brussels, Belgium – Uganda’s Deputy Speaker of Parliament and President of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) Parliamentary Assembly, Thomas Tayebwa, has urged OACPS member states to make trade, industrialisation and value addition central to their development agenda.
Tayebwa made the remarks while addressing the 121ST OACPS Council of Ministers at the Egmont Palace in Brussels.
He challenged the 79-member bloc to focus on practical economic issues that directly improve the livelihoods of citizens, saying the organisation’s relevance would increasingly be judged by its ability to champion policies that create jobs, strengthen regional industries and enable member states to derive greater value from their natural resources.
Tayebwa said one of the most pressing challenges confronting Africa and other developing regions is the continued export of unprocessed minerals.
He noted that the matter has long been championed by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who has consistently argued that Africa cannot achieve meaningful prosperity while exporting raw materials and importing finished products.
“I think at the level of the Council of Ministers, we need to start tackling the hard questions relevant to our people. One of them is… the issue of Africa and the developing world exporting unprocessed minerals as raw materials,” Tayebwa said.
He backed his argument with figures showing that Africa holds an estimated US$29.5 trillion in mineral wealth, about 20 percent of the global total, but continues to lose substantial economic value because most of its minerals leave the continent in raw or minimally processed form. Instead of refining or manufacturing higher-value products locally, African countries export ores and concentrates, allowing other economies to capture the largest share of the value chain.
According to Tayebwa, this model has left Africa exporting employment opportunities and industrial growth alongside its natural resources. He observed that the continent processes only a small proportion of the minerals it produces, while countries that import those minerals generate far greater wealth through manufacturing.
He cited the Democratic Republic of Congo as an example of how value addition can transform economies, noting that increased domestic processing of cobalt significantly boosted the country’s revenues. He said such experiences should encourage OACPS member states to adopt deliberate policies that promote mineral beneficiation and industrialisation across the bloc.
Tayebwa also revisited one of President Museveni’s longstanding examples on the coffee value chain to illustrate how commodity-producing countries receive only a fraction of the wealth generated from the products they produce. The example, he said, demonstrates why African countries must move beyond exporting raw commodities and instead invest in processing and manufacturing industries that retain value at home.
“I remember my President gave us some feedback… the coffee market was worth around US$465 billion and out of that only US$25 billion was going to the coffee-producing countries, with Africa taking only 3%. Now, you producers, you produce US$465 billion worth of value and get only US$25 billion,” he said.
Tayebwa warned the OACPS Council of Ministers that unless the bloc redefines its priorities by focusing on issues that matter most to ordinary citizens, it risks losing its relevance.
“If we don’t tackle such issues, then the organisation will not be relevant to our people… We should look at topics that do speak to the hearts of our people, that do speak to the transformation of our people. That’s the only way the organisation will be relevant,” he said.
The OACPS brings together countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific to promote cooperation on trade, sustainable development and political dialogue.
