By Lunice Johnston
Accra/Lusaka, 10 September 2026 – Africa must produce more of what it consumes, buy more of what it produces and proudly take its own goods to the world if it is to create jobs and build lasting economic strength, Professor Douglas K. Boateng, Goodwill Ambassador Extraordinaire for the African Supply Chain Confederation (ASCON), will tell supply chain leaders gathering in Zambia this month.
Professor Boateng will deliver the keynote address at the ASCON 2026 Conference at what is expected to be this year’s largest continental gathering focused on supply chains and industrialisation, bringing together procurement professionals, policymakers, corporate executives, academics and decision makers from across Africa.
Entitled “Breaking Down Barriers Through Made in Africa,” Professor Boateng says his keynote will focus on why it’s vital that the continent own its own products. “African manufactured products should progressively carry ‘MADE IN AFRICA’ as their 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,” he says, emphasising that the continent must also not shy away from the use of all capitals on product labelling.
“The country of production tells us where the product comes from. “MADE IN AFRICA” tells the world the economic family to which it belongs,” Professor Boateng says. “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,” he adds.
Professor Boateng says that his address is aimed at opening constructive dialogue on his position that genuine continental integration demands more than customs posts and trade agreements. Instead, it requires dismantling the psychological, procurement and institutional barriers that keep Africans from producing for, trading with and confidently buying from one another, he explains.
“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,” Professor Boateng states. “We cannot continue exporting the seed, importing the finished fruit, and complaining that our young people cannot find work.”
Professor Boateng is also set to challenge the thousands of delegates specialising in supply chains to see their daily decisions as instruments of industrialisation. “Every significant procurement decision is potentially an industrialisation decision,” he says.
“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,” Professor Boateng adds.
ASCON Secretary General John Karani says the ASCON Conference 2026, to be held between 23 and 25 September in Livingstone, Zambia, at the Radisson Blu Mosi-Oa-Tunya Resort, presents 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,” Karani says. “Proudly labelling our production outputs and beneficiation as made on the continent, while also highlighting the country of origin, challenges us to connect national productive strength into a stronger African economic ecosystem,” he says.
Professor Boateng will close by arguing that Africa’s industrial future ultimately depends on the choices Africans make themselves, with a practical challenge to all supply chain professionals. “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,” he says.
“Learn globally. Compete globally. But produce African and take African excellence confidently to the world. The Africa we desire remains firmly in our own hands,” Professor Boateng emphasises. In the spirit of NyansaKasa, words of wisdom, he says: “The village from which the drum came deserves recognition, but when the drumbeat travels, the world should know it is African.”
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