After decades of delays, Guinea’s Simandou megaproject has entered a new phase of reality, with China receiving the first fully integrated shipment of iron ore from the vast deposit, marking a turning point for both the West African nation and global supply chains.
Is it that Africa continues to ship out raw materials that sustain the global economy because of lack of vision and transformative leaders? Having been rendered poor and destitute by decades of colonialism and instability, are our leaders so beggarly and feeble, even timid on the global stage? So we remain grateful for small mercies at the beginning of the value chain but scant proportion of the net yield?
Congratulations to Guinea and the various African stakeholders of the project nay AFDB, AFC, Afreximback and others. We need to see forward integration for such initiatives. A direct reduction steel plant must be on the cards for Guinea. Don’t rest on your laurels of the relative crumbs you’d get from selling iron ore. You are in the big league now. Mozambique can ship you all the coking coal you need to make steel. This is not the time to binge on frivolities like new government buildings and monuments, flashy cars and palaces for government officials. It is time to invest in the future of a long suffering nation and continent. It’s time to be bold and courageous.
We need to see more of the processing of our minerals done in Africa. We need to see steel plants rising to produce the end products that are required and that we consume. We have the space and the bodies. Nigeria’s Ajaokuta still rankles.
Dangote refinery and cement plants as well as others have shown the way that these things are not rocket science.
The Lobito corridor is another area that’s generating great excitement. There is no reason why more of the ev value chain cannot be domesticated in Africa. We just need leaders with vision and not obsessed with being in power. Ruto has shown that creative financing solutions that can produce wins all round are possible for big projects such as the Naivasha – Kisumu – Malaba segments of the SGR. Innovation having been forced by circumstances. Botswana’s economic nationalism is reflective of this required boldness.
Let’s go Africa!