“Africa Cannot Industrialise If African Capital Refuses to Build Africa” – Alex Apau Dadey

“Africa Cannot Industrialise If African Capital Refuses to Build Africa” – Alex Apau Dadey

15TH MAY, 2026 |KIGALI, RWANDA

At the Forward Africa Leaders Symposium 2026 in Kigali, Rwanda, the Group Executive Chairman, Alex Apau Dadey, delivered a compelling call for Africa to rethink the future of its development agenda, urging African governments, institutions, and private sector leaders to deliberately redirect capital into
digital infrastructure, innovation, and long-term institutional growth. Addressing a distinguished gathering of policymakers, innovators, business executives, and development leaders at the symposium, Mr Dadey challenged the continent to move beyond conversations around transformation and begin
delivering measurable, scalable impact through good governance and strategic collaboration.

Speaking on the theme “Empowering Growth: Leveraging Innovation and Collaboration for Sustainable Growth in Africa – A KGL Case Study,” he stressed that Africa’s greatest challenge is not a lack of ideas, but the absence of courageous and visionary leadership capable of building institutions that outlive personalities and political cycles.

“Africa does not have a shortage of capital. What Africa lacks is direction of capital,” he stated, emphasising that too much African wealth still flows into consumption instead of infrastructure, imported luxury instead of productive innovation, and foreign markets instead of African transformation. “Africa cannot industrialise if African capital refuses to build Africa,” he added.

Mr. Dadey further noted that Africa’s future competitiveness would depend largely on how effectively governments and the private sector collaborate to build cross-border infrastructure anchored on four critical pillars — physical connectivity, energy connectivity, digital connectivity, and human capacity
development. Drawing on KGL Group across multiple sectors, he highlighted how technology-driven systems are transforming traditional industries through improved transparency, accountability, operational efficiency, and revenue generation. He referenced KGL’s digitalization collaborations within the lottery sector in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, as well as Fuel Automation Ghana’s automation of premix fuel distribution across over 200 landing beaches in Ghana, which has significantly improved monitoring and reduced irregularities within the fisheries value chain.

He also underscored the importance of strong corporate governance, describing governance as “the currency of trust” in modern business leadership. According to him, Africa’s next generation of globally competitive institutions will not be defined merely by size or volume, but by transparency, accountability, ethical leadership, and the ability to deploy African capital responsibly.

“The Asian Tigers did not transform through aid. They transformed because local capital backed national ambition. Africa must do the same,” he stated.

Concluding his address, the KGL Group Executive Chairman positioned Africa’s digital future as the continent’s greatest economic opportunity, stressing that the nations and institutions that build trusted digital infrastructure first will shape the future of the global economy.

According to him, Africa’s future competitiveness will not be determined solely by natural resources or population size, but by the continent’s ability to build strong institutions that embrace innovation and foster purposeful collaboration. “Africa missed the first industrial revolution. Africa was marginalized in parts of the digital revolution. But Africa can lead the integration revolution,” he stated.