.. urges investment of African wealth in Africa
Patrick Otieno Lumumba, renowned Pan-African public intellectual and Professor of Public Law, has warned African sovereign wealth funds about their “overdependence on the U.S. dollar,” urging a decisive shift toward greater economic sovereignty.
He also challenged Africa’s leaders and sovereign wealth managers to stop outsourcing the continent’s future and invest its wealth within its borders.
Lumumba made the bold call for economic sovereignty and internal investment during his speech at the 2025 Africa Sovereign Investors Forum (ASIF) which began in Abuja on Monday, and hosted by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA)
In a keynote that combined historical urgency with blunt critique, Lumumba told Africa’s sovereign wealth leaders and policymakers gathered under the theme “Leveraging African Sovereign Wealth Funds to Mobilise Global Capital for Transformative Development in Africa” that the continent’s destiny lies not in aid or external validation, but in harnessing its own capital for its own people.
“What we do here, what we say here, will only have meaning if they are cascaded to them (Africa’s poor) and it improves the quality of their lives,” Lumumba began, framing his remarks around the everyday African citizen who remains excluded from elite financial conversations.
The distinguished professor of public law, widely regarded for his oratory and unapologetic pan-African stance, reminded the audience of recent engagements across the continent—in Ghana, Malawi, Zimbabwe—and the recurring theme that African investment must begin at home.
Recalling a 2023 visit with President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi, Lumumba said, “We reminded the President and he agreed that even an African with $5,000 is an investor if he or she collaborates with fellow Africans.”
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He lamented the irony of Africa’s global economic position despite its vast wealth. “Africa continues to punch below her wing,” he said, pointing to extractive models where gold mined in Africa is traded in Europe, and diamonds are only valued when cut outside the continent.
“They are no longer happy that you are not cutting diamond in Antwerp,” he said of foreign powers losing control over African value chains.
On the issue of intergenerational wealth and natural resource management, Lumumba stated: “We have an intergenerational duty to cater for generations yet to be born… What are you doing with the income that you are realising now so that your children and children’s children will have something to inherit?”
He took aim at Africa’s financial systems still tethered to the West, remarking, “We still get the mood of our economies through the moodys. We still wait for our budget to be approved by the World Bank and the IMF. We still when we want money go to the Euro bond not the Afro bond.”
Even the continent’s currencies and reserves, he observed, remain structurally weak and externally dependent: “The Naira is not hard, it is soft. The Cedi is not hard, it is soft. The shilling is not hard, it is soft. Even our sovereign funds… are still denominated in the American dollar.”
With biting irony, Lumumba likened Africa’s perceived value on the global stage to toilet paper: “Useful before you use it, useless after you’ve used it, and useful again when you need it.”
Lumumba urged attendees to discard the illusion that Africa’s underdevelopment is due to a lack of intellect or resources.
According to him, “Africa is the most resource-rich continent on earth… But yet, ironically and diabolically, we are still poor.”
Warring against token collaboration with external powers, the Professor asked: “Is it the relationship between a horse and its rider, or it is a collaboration of equals?” The time, he said, has come for Africans to take full control of their capital, trade, and future.
“Let us make sure that our sovereign funds are invested in the continent of Africa… Let us make Africa great again because she was once great,” he urged.
In his final charge to the delegates — among them Vice President Kashim Shettima- who declared the event open- sovereign wealth heads, development finance institutions, and African and Nigerian policymakers — Lumumba called for action beyond ambition.
“Nobody is going to do it. We must work at it. We can do it. We must do it,” he urged noting that greatness will not be gifted to Africa — but must be reclaimed, funded, and built from within.
