There’s no shortage of remarkable stories about the central role Africa will play in the world’s future, but one theme that captures my attention is UN demographers project the continent will be home to a quarter of the world’s population by 2050 — and as much as 40% by 2100.
This is happening because between now and 2050, and between 2050 and 2100, a significant portion of the world’s population growth will be in Africa.
It’s against this backdrop that South Africa will be abuzz with anticipation as it hosts the G20 Leaders Summit from November 22 to 23 — the culmination of its G20 presidency, which runs from December 1, 2024 to November 30 this year.
The G20 is an intergovernmental forum of 19 sovereign countries plus the AU and the EU. It was founded in the wake of the Asian financial crisis and now serves as the “premier forum for international economic co-operation”. South Africa is Africa’s only sovereign country representative on the G20.
The world’s evolving demographics will lead to pronounced changes in the global economy, international trade and the manner in which the world’s supply chains function. Certainly, the dialogues at G20 South Africa will yield many outcomes, but three in particular must take centre stage if Africa is to begin realising her potential this century — industrial transformation, storytelling and free trade.
It is argued that the world urgently needs Africa to industrialise. According to the UN, the continent holds about 30% of global mineral reserves, 8% of natural gas and 12% of oil resources. Africa also possesses 40% of the world’s gold and up to 90% of its chromium and platinum. The UN further reports that the largest reserves of cobalt, diamonds, platinum and uranium are found on the continent, which also holds 65% of the world’s arable land and 10% of its internal renewable freshwater sources.
Such a transformation is about boosting Africa’s capacity to participate in global production and consumption by aggressively adopting, applying and developing new innovations in exponential technologies.
Exponential technologies are those that evolve in terms of Moore’s Law — where their capabilities grow exponentially while the costs of producing and adopting them in industry and everyday life fall just as fast. Such technologies cut across virtually every industry and sector within the economy.
Africa — and the rest of the world — needs to start telling and publicising different, better and more inspiring stories about the continent’s past, present and future. As an early-stage venture capitalist, there are two observations about storytelling that are always top of mind.
Africa is grossly underperforming economically: With a population that rivals that of China and India, Africa’s annual economic output is about $2.8-trillion in 2025. India’s is about $4.2-trillion, while China’s is about $19.2-trillion.
The first is an observation by Don Valentine, the founder of Sequoia Capital: “The art of storytelling is incredibly important. And many — maybe even most of the entrepreneurs who come to talk to us — can’t tell the story. Learning to tell a story is incredibly important because that’s how the money works. The money flows as a function of the stories.”
The second is an observation by Steve Jobs: “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.”
This requires increased and consistent investments in Africa’s creative economy to drive the production of goods and services related to ideas and innovations derived from Africa’s artistic output. Such investments contribute to Africa’s economic progress by fashioning, elevating and promulgating narratives about what is possible, and inspiring Africans to solve the problems millions of their compatriots are confronted by daily through critical problem-solving and technology-driven entrepreneurship.
The ultimate goal of these activities is to empower African creatives to tell the kinds of stories that draw all the different forms of financial, intellectual and social capital to investment opportunities. Across asset classes, across industries and across the entire continent.
Africa is grossly underperforming economically: With a population that rivals that of China and India, Africa’s annual economic output is about $2.8-trillion in 2025. India’s is about $4.2-trillion, while China’s is about $19.2-trillion.
Africa can do better
But doing better requires the removal of visible and invisible barriers to intra-African trade in raw materials and value-added goods and services — currently the lowest among the world’s economic regions, and a source of significant added cost in manufacturing supply chains and value chains across the continent.
There must be a concerted and continent-wide push for value-added production across all sectors of activity within Africa’s economy. There must be a concerted push by public and private sector organisations to harness the financial, intellectual and social capital within Africa’s diaspora. And there must be a concerted push to bring Africa’s youth more fully into the global economy through trade.
To be clear, none of this is easy or simple. These efforts require Africa’s governments to grapple with complex, dynamic and interconnected social issues. These will require consultation and collaboration across a broad range of stakeholders, whose interests and motivations may be ambiguous, evolving and sometimes conflicting.
It is within this context that Time Africa, Arena Holdings and the New York Africa Chamber of Commerce (NYACC) are collaborating to host a series of official G20 South Africa side-events on November 19 and 20 in Johannesburg. These inaugural events seek to create a forum for open, energetic, action-oriented and ongoing dialogue about Africa’s role in the world’s future.
The goal is to harness the energy coming out of the G20 South Africa Leader’s Summit to create a series of ongoing conversations to galvanise action across Africa’s private and public sector — and to drive advances in power and energy, agriculture, industrialisation, infrastructure and socio-economic development. Together, let’s envision a future in which Africa is no longer an afterthought in the world economy. Then let’s work to make that future a tangible reality.
Join us.
Aoaeh is a founder and managing general partner of REFASHIOND Ventures: The Industrial Transformation Fund, a venture capital fund investing in early-stage startups.
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