African countries need to channel their resources to activities in industry, manufacturing and modern services to create more employment and improve the welfare of vulnerable groups, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa deputy executive secretary Abdalla Hamdok said.

Speaking at the opening of a meeting of African finance, economy and development experts, in Abuja, Nigeria earlier this week, he said the continent should focus on developing a manufacturing sector that was interlinked with other sectors of the economy and that was capable of raising productivity.

“Resource-rich and resource-poor African countries should build capacities to invest in new noncommodity-based industries,” Hamdok added.

Further, he pointed out that, despite the continent’s rapid economic growth over the last decade, it continued to display “glaring contradictions between economic and social indicators”, as poverty remained pervasive and unemployment remained high.

African Union Commission economic affairs commissioner Dr Anthony Mothae Maruping added to Hamdok’s statement, noting that most African countries had been performing well in terms of headline numbers,; however, a significant impact on the lives of the people was not visible.

“Africans are, therefore, calling for major structural transformation to sustain the current economic performance,” he said, stressing that industrialisation was the next critical level of this transformation to “meaningfully join the global value and supply chains where opportunities and jobs are created”.

Maruping also said governments would have to develop institutions with the ability to effectively implement industrialisation plans and strategies.

The African finance, economy and development experts’ meeting preceded the Seventh Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union joint yearly meetings of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, which opened on Thursday.