Africa’s industrialisation challenge may ultimately be decided not only in factories, mines and government ministries, but in procurement departments across the continent. That is the central argument Professor Douglas K. Boateng, Goodwill Ambassador Extraordinaire for the African Supply Chain Confederation (ASCON), is expected to bring to supply chain leaders gathering in Zambia this month.

Delivering the keynote address at the ASCON 2026 Conference in Livingstone, Professor Boateng will argue that Africa must produce more of what it consumes, buy more of what it produces and take greater ownership of the products it sells to the world. His argument goes beyond the familiar call for African industrialisation, placing procurement and everyday commercial decisions at the centre of the continent’s economic transformation.

Under the theme “Breaking Down Barriers Through Made in Africa”, Boateng is expected to advocate for a stronger continental identity for African manufactured goods. He proposes that products retain their national identities while carrying a broader ‘Made in Africa’ designation, allowing a product to be identified by its country of production while simultaneously signalling its place within the wider African economic community.

The proposition has implications far beyond product labelling. Africa has spent decades exporting raw materials while importing a substantial share of the manufactured goods it consumes. Boateng’s argument is that changing this pattern requires more than trade agreements and lower customs barriers. It requires African institutions and companies to deliberately create demand for African production, giving local manufacturers the market certainty needed to invest, expand and employ.

That places procurement professionals in a much more consequential position. A large contract for equipment, food, technology, construction materials or professional services can determine whether demand flows to a factory within Africa or to a supplier outside the continent. In Boateng’s view, every major procurement decision is therefore potentially an industrialisation decision because it influences where capital circulates, where jobs are created and where productive capacity develops.

The timing of the conversation is significant as African countries pursue greater economic integration through initiatives such as the African Continental Free Trade Area. Greater intra-African trade creates a potentially much larger market for businesses that can manufacture competitively, but market access alone will not create industrialisation. African producers must also meet the standards, prices, quality requirements and reliability expected by buyers.

This is where the supply chain becomes critical. Building African industrial capacity requires more than establishing factories. It requires reliable logistics, financing, skills, energy, technology, procurement systems and customers willing to create sustained demand. Connecting these elements could allow African economies to move from exporting commodities towards building increasingly sophisticated regional value chains.

The ASCON 2026 Conference, scheduled for 23 to 25 September at the Radisson Blu Mosi Oa Tunya Resort in Livingstone, will bring together procurement professionals, policymakers, corporate executives, academics and other decision makers from across Africa. For Zambia, the gathering also provides an opportunity to place the country within a wider conversation about regional supply chains, local manufacturing and the economic potential of stronger African trade.

The deeper message is that industrialisation cannot be outsourced. Africa can learn from global markets, attract international investment and compete for customers around the world, but the foundations of its productive economy have to be built through decisions made within the continent.

For Boateng, the objective is therefore not to turn away from the world but to enter it from a position of greater productive strength. Africa must learn globally and compete globally while building the capacity to produce African goods and take African excellence confidently to international markets. The Made in Africa proposition is ultimately less about a label on a product than about who controls the economic value created around it.