Julius Okorie
The popular saying that the ant that destroys the vegetable lives in the vegetable came to the fore Tuesday, after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) released 2023 infographic of the World’s biggest exporters.
A look at the infographic, indicates that Nigeria described as the most populous black nation in the world as well as the giant of Africa was conspicuously missing.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelAs if that was not alarming enough, the entire continent of Africa was equally missing from the data. Known to boast of abundant raw materials deposits, the continent failed to rank among best exporters as she merely exports raw materials without adding values.
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A continent blessed with raw materials but consumed by political squabbles corruption leading to poverty and poor economy. Rather that looking inwards most governments in Africa depend on borrowing to finance their economy, while their counterparts elsewhere look for how to increase exports to earn more and boost their economies.
Other parts of the world who over the years have perfected the act of improving the raw materials through manufacturing dominate the biggest exporter’s index.
The infographic further puts the world total export value at $23.8 trillion of which Nigeria and Africa has no part.
A breakdown of the level of exports indicates that China leads the pack with export worth $3.38 trillion followed by United States of America with $2.02trillion and Germany with $1.69trillion.
Countries whose exports run into several billions of dollars in Europe include France, Netherlands, Italy, Uk, Poland and Italy among others.
In Asia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and India among others feature prominently.
The Middle East and Australia were not left out. To opine that Nigeria and Africa must move from consumption is to put it mildly as the infographic has shown that merely excavating raw materials and exporting and exporting them abroad is no longer the in-thing.
Most raw materials exported out of Africa are refined into better use and then re-exported to Africa. To catch up with other parts of the world, the continent will need to move from consumption to production.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
