By Francis Ntow, GNA Special Correspondent, Bangkok
Bangkok, Oct. 16, GNA – Africa must move beyond managing recurring global shocks to transforming its economies through domestic resource mobilisation, diversification and investment, three African Finance Ministers have said.
The Ministers said successive crises had exposed the limits of resilience and underscored the need to build fiscal buffers, strengthen local value chains and invest in human capital.
Aboubacar Nacanabo, Burkina Faso’s Minister of Economy, Finance and Foresight; Christian Yoka, Congo’s Minister of Finance, Budget and Public Portfolio; and Mariama Ciré Sylla, Guinea’s Minister of Economy, Finance and Budget, made the call at a press conference during the 2026 International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Bangkok on Thursday.
They cited the 2014 oil price crash, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the war in the Middle East as successive shocks that had tested African economies.
“You notice that the crisis is not only repetitive, but they are coming in more. It looks like the world has come to a new paradigm and we need to live with that. So, in such a context, the goal for us is not to focus on resilience, that won’t be enough,” Mr Nacanabo said.
“We have to go for further for a more transformative agenda. Our goal should be to make sure that we can protect our countries for different shocks,” he said.
He outlined three pillars for transformation: domestic revenue mobilisation, greater ownership and local value addition in natural resources, and appropriate financing systems.
Mr Nacanabo said Burkina Faso had increased its tax-to-GDP ratio from 15 per cent in 2022 to 19 per cent in 2025 through reforms, including digitalisation and land taxation.
He called for greater investment in education, health and social protection, alongside the development of local value chains in agriculture, mining and other resource sectors to create jobs for the continent’s youthful population.
Mr Yoka said the crises of the past decade required African countries to pursue sustainable policies and implement programmes that supported long-term economic transformation.
“The successive global crises since 2014 prove Africa must move beyond resilience to transformation by building domestic fiscal buffers and diversifying oil-dependent economies,” he said.
Mr Yoka said Congo had embarked on reforms to mobilise domestic resources and build fiscal buffers, enabling it to withstand shocks while continuing to invest in future development.
He urged African governments to diversify their economies, saying dependence on oil left countries vulnerable to price declines.
Ms Sylla said Africa’s natural resources offered significant opportunities that had remained underutilised and underfinanced for years.
She called for investment in skills and capacity to strengthen countries’ ability to negotiate better resource agreements and secure greater economic benefits. Guinea, she said, had invested in training negotiators and auditors for that purpose.
Ms Sylla said Guinea’s US$20 billion Simandou project, which includes a US$13 billion, 650-kilometre multi-user railway, was intended to improve agricultural competitiveness and position the country as a regional logistics hub.
The three Ministers said African countries needed to use natural resources to support infrastructure development across sectors, invest in human capital and secure suitable financing to achieve lasting economic transformation and greater sovereignty.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey
Reporter: Francis Ntow