The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, has urged Africans both on the continent and in the diaspora to ensure that Africa’s growing economic importance translates into greater ownership of its resources, industries and future.

Speaking at the EMY Africa – Africa Rising Symposium in London, Mr Gyamfi said Africa’s emergence as a global economic force should not be measured solely by its population growth or natural resource wealth, but by who ultimately controls and benefits from that growth.

He challenged Africans to rethink the continent’s development model by asking whether Africa would continue serving as a supplier of raw materials and labour or become a centre of innovation and industrialisation.

“Africa is rising in population, in ambition, in enterprise, and in global strategic importance. But the defining question is this; who will own Africa’s rise? Will Africa rise as a supplier of raw materials, cheap labour, and consumer markets for others? Or will Africa rise as a continent of producers, innovators, owners, financiers, and builders?” he asked.

Mr Gyamfi described the African diaspora as one of the continent’s greatest strategic assets, saying it possesses the expertise, technology, networks and capital needed to help transform Africa’s economies.

“The Global African Diaspora is not a sentimental extension of Africa. It is one of Africa’s most powerful and strategic assets: a reservoir of expertise, skills, technology, capital, networks, credibility, influence, and lived experience in systems that Africa must now master for itself,” he said.

According to him, Africa’s abundant natural resources should no longer enrich foreign economies while millions of young Africans remain unemployed.

“My brothers and sisters, Africa’s rise must not mean African resources rising into foreign balance sheets while the African youth remain unemployed. Africa’s rise must mean African resources creating African industries, African jobs, African brands, African wealth, African reserves, and African dignity,” he stressed.

Mr Gyamfi also urged African governments to create favourable conditions for investment through stable policies, transparent institutions and respect for contracts, saying these were essential for attracting both domestic and diaspora capital.

Concluding his address, he called on Africans everywhere to work together to shape the continent’s future on their own terms.

“So the question before us is not whether Africa will matter in this century. For Africa will surely matter. The question is whether Africa will matter on terms shaped by Africans.”

He added: “We are done with predicting Africa’s future. The time to build that future is now. If we build it together, continent and diaspora, youth and elders, public sector and private enterprise, capital and conscience, then Africa’s rise will not be a performance staged for others. It will be a transformation owned by Africans.”