Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Nigeria and other 53 African countries must improve their trading activities with the United States, diversify their export markets and utilise the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) to take cover from the sweeping tariffs triggered by US President Donald Trump.
This is according to Akinwunmi Adeshina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) who featured on CNN Friday, stating that Africa has to use what it has from natural resources to demographic dividends to negotiate for a better trade and investment deal with all parts of the world.
“We need more trade with the United States, not less trade. Secondly, is to also look at, from the perspective of the African countries, they have to diversify their export markets to reduce this kind of impact on their economies. And thirdly, as you know, we have the African Continental Free Trade Area,” Adesina said.
“That market is about a $3.4 trillion market trade among ourselves. And so we’re not actually trading more among ourselves. We’re trading more with external parties than we are trading with ourselves.”
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On April 2, 2025, the United States announced a new set of tariffs known as the “Liberation Day Tariffs,” a protectionist move that has sent shockwaves across emerging market economies, stoking global uncertainty.
President Trump imposed reciprocal tariffs of 14% on Nigeria, 30% on South Africa, 21% on Namibia, 50% on Lesotho, and 10% each on Kenya, Ghana, and Ethiopia.
Though he announced a 90-day pause in tariffs, African nations still reel from the impact of the initial all-round scores of tariffs, highlighting how fragile the continent’s economy is to external shocks.
The AfDB chief said African countries are “doing well” even in the face of the deadly pandemic and geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine that sent prices of essential food items to the roof.
“Africa is actually quite a resilient country,” Adeshina said. “Despite a debt overhang that has arisen because of weakening currencies and high interest rates in many parts of the world, 10 of the 20 fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa.”
But despite having almost 20 percent of the global population, the 54 countries on the continent account for less than 3 percent of global GDP, almost the same as Germany’s about 2.7 percent when combined.
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The impact of Trump’s tariffs might be far-reaching for African countries, Adeshina said, noting that 47 out of the 54 African countries were actually affected by the taxes, meaning that the “export revenue for many of these countries will fall.”
Though the total amount of trade that Africa has with the United States is relatively low at $34 billion, that’s not more than 1.2% of total U.S. trade with the rest of the world.
“Many of them will actually have a decline in their foreign reserves. Now, when that happens, the implication has to do with what happens with their domestic currencies. Now, those domestic currencies are suddenly going to weaken,” he said.
“When those currencies weaken, two things are going to happen. First, you’re going to find that high inflation becomes a problem. And secondly, you find that the cost of actually servicing a lot of their debt, which is actually foreign currency debt, but in local currency, is going to get worse.”
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Adeshina has however urged African leaders to “scale up” the continent’s population estimated around 1.5 billion, expand its taxable base, invest in infrastructure by increasing access to electricity and get the right deals to increase its growth pace.
“I believe that Africa should scale up its population, boost its domestic savings, and be able to develop consumption as a bigger share of its GDP. That way you can tariff proof yourself to some extent,” the AfDB boss said.
“I would say, grow your domestic savings, invest a lot in infrastructure, don’t export raw materials, because if export of raw materials is what we do, it’s a door to poverty. But when you export value added, you go on a highway to wealth. And so the key is industrialisation, creating jobs, and creating value chains.”
