Abou El-Enein At an international conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings:
- Africa’s minerals must not be exported as raw materials but as industrial products to create jobs and maximize added value.
- Africa does not need aid, but rather investments and joint projects that deliver mutual benefits.
- Egypt’s experience in achieving stability and development over the past decade offers a model for other African nations.
MP Mohamed Abou El-Enein, Deputy Speaker of the Egyptian House of Representatives and Chairman of Cleopatra Group, affirmed that the African continent possesses vast potential, rich natural resources, vibrant youth, and large markets. He stressed the need for a global shift in perspective toward Africa — a continent that seeks not aid-based relationships, but strategic partnerships founded on investment and fair trade that generate shared prosperity.
Abou El-Enein delivered his remarks at the Africa Global Forum 2025, organized by the Africa Prosperity Network (APN) in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The event brought together prominent business leaders, policymakers, and experts under the theme:
“Africa’s Response to Tariff Wars: Building a Prosperous and Integrated Continent Beyond Aid.”
He emphasized that Africa must negotiate with major powers as one bloc and with one unified voice to secure better terms and strengthen its bargaining position, instead of allowing each country to negotiate separately.
Abou El-Enein called for the creation of an African Finance Club to unite African nations in collective negotiations aimed at securing concessional financing terms and reducing debt burdens.
He also proposed the establishment of an African Minerals Club, bringing together African countries rich in minerals — particularly critical minerals and rare earth elements essential for advanced industries, semiconductors, and renewable energy.
This, he explained, would enable collective negotiation with countries and corporations seeking access to these resources, ensuring that industrial processing takes place within Africa so that exports become intermediate goods and production components, not raw materials.
He noted that integrating Africa into global supply chains would strengthen the continent’s industrial base, create jobs for youth, facilitate technology transfer, diversify exports, and multiply their value many times over.
Abou El-Enein stressed that Africa’s future lies in investment, industrialization, and human development. Relying on raw material extraction and exportation, he said, will neither bring sustainable development nor create jobs or stable revenues, and will leave Africa vulnerable to external shocks.
Encouraging investment and industrialization, he continued, requires an attractive and secure business climate built on equal treatment for domestic and foreign investors, modern infrastructure, incentivizing legislation, and specialized industrial and economic zones offering comprehensive services such as schools, training centers, and banks — similar to successful global models.
He cited the Suez Canal Economic Zone in Egypt as a prominent example of this approach.
He urged African countries to develop comprehensive investment maps outlining available opportunities, incentives, and financing sources, as well as to enhance youth skills through modern universities capable of meeting the new needs of both local and global labor markets.
Abou El-Enein pointed to Egypt’s experience over the past ten years, during which the number of universities doubled from 50 to 128, including international universities established in partnership with Japan, Germany, China, and others, that transfer advanced knowledge to Egyptian students.
He added that new disciplines, such as artificial intelligence and digital transformation, are now being taught at Egyptian universities, which are open to students from across Africa.
Concluding his remarks, Abou El-Enein underscored that Egypt’s success in achieving stability and development over the past decade offers valuable lessons and a replicable model for other African countries striving for progress and sustainable growth.
