Ing. Prof. Douglas Boateng is set to deliver a keynote address at what is expected to be the largest professional gathering on supply chain and industrialisation ever assembled on the African continent, when it convenes in Livingstone, Zambia, bringing together procurement professionals, policymakers, corporate executives, academics and decision-makers from across Africa.

In a keynote address themed “Breaking Down Barriers Through Made in Africa,” Professor Boateng will argue that African-manufactured products should progressively carry MADE IN AFRICA as a shared continental identity, qualified by country of production — MADE IN AFRICA, Produced in Ghana; MADE IN AFRICA, Produced in Nigeria; MADE IN AFRICA, Produced in Zambia.

“The country of production tells us where the product comes from. MADE IN AFRICA tells the world the economic family to which it belongs,” he explains. “A product can be proudly produced in Ghana and proudly Made in Africa. National pride and Pan-African economic identity should reinforce, not compete with, each other.”

Professor Boateng contends that genuine continental integration demands more than customs posts and trade agreements. It requires dismantling the psychological, procurement and institutional barriers that keep Africans from producing for, trading with, and confidently buying from one another.

“For too long, Africa has exported what it has, imported what it could progressively learn to produce, and then wondered why industrial jobs are being created elsewhere,” he says. “We cannot continue exporting the seed, importing the finished fruit, and complaining that our young people cannot find work.”

He will challenge the thousands of supply chain and procurement professionals expected at the gathering to see their everyday decisions as instruments of industrialisation.

“Every significant procurement decision is potentially an industrialisation decision,” he notes. “When an institution spends, it is also deciding whose factory receives demand, whose workers remain employed, and where tomorrow’s productive capability will be built.”

For John Kirani, Secretary General of the African Supply Chain Confederation (ASCON), the gathering is an opportunity to connect Africa’s professional capability with its wider industrial ambitions.

“This is about mobilising the people whose everyday decisions influence production, sourcing and trade across Africa,” says Kirani. “Professor Boateng’s address challenges us to connect national productive strength into a stronger African economic ecosystem.”

Professor Boateng is unequivocal:

“The Africa we desire will not simply arrive at our ports in containers. We must imagine it, finance it, source it, produce it, and proudly trade it — ourselves.”

“Learn globally. Compete globally. But produce African,” he adds. “Let us take African excellence confidently to the world. The Africa we desire remains firmly in our own hands.”

In the spirit of NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom), he leaves delegates with this thought:

“The village from which the drum came deserves recognition, but when the drumbeat travels, the world should know it is African.”