Speaker Oboth urges MPs to prioritise wealth creation through value addition
During the meeting, Oboth challenged MPs to use their legislative, budgetary and oversight powers to ensure that Africa's natural resources generate jobs, establish industries and improve household incomes rather than simply provide revenue from exports.
Speaker Oboth said parliamentarians had a responsibility to scrutinise extraction contracts, enforce local content laws and close loopholes that facilitate illicit financial flows. (Credit: Miriam Namutebi)
WAKISO - Speaker of Parliament Jacob Marksons Oboth has urged African legislators to prioritise wealth creation through value addition.
He warned that the continent will remain economically dependent if it continues exporting raw materials while other countries reap the benefits of processing and manufacturing.
He gave the advisory on Tuesday, November 10, while addressing members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association at Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel in Entebbe.
Africa's abundant natural resources, Oboth added, had not translated into prosperity for its people because much of the value generated from extraction, processing and marketing was captured outside the continent
“The tragedy of Africa is not the absence of wealth; it’s our failure to transform that wealth into prosperity for our people. We extract and export raw materials while processing, manufacturing, employment and profits largely accumulate elsewhere,” he said.
The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Africa Region Capacity Development Seminar will run until November 13, 2026.
According to a statement from Parliament, the seminar is being held under the theme, From Extraction to Transformation: Parliamentary Leadership in Securing Africa’s Resource Wealth for Sustainable Development.
The seminar has brought together legislators from Uganda, South Africa, Rwanda, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia to discuss how parliamentary leadership can strengthen accountability and ensure that Africa's resource wealth contributes to sustainable development
During the meeting, Oboth challenged MPs to use their legislative, budgetary and oversight powers to ensure that Africa's natural resources generate jobs, establish industries and improve household incomes rather than simply provide revenue from exports.
He said parliamentarians had a responsibility to scrutinise extraction contracts, enforce local content laws and close loopholes that facilitate illicit financial flows.
According to Oboth, wealth creation should not be measured merely by the volume of resources extracted or exported, but by the economic opportunities created along the entire production chain.
He cited coffee and crude oil as examples of commodities whose economic potential extends beyond cultivation and extraction to processing, packaging, marketing and manufacturing.
He said processing agricultural products such as coffee, maize and cocoa locally would enable African countries to retain more value, create employment and develop industries that support sustainable economic growth.
“Communities must participate in decisions affecting their livelihoods, benefit from resource extraction in their areas and be protected against displacement and environmental degradation,” he said
Oboth also pointed to Uganda's efforts under President Yoweri Museveni to promote local processing of agricultural commodities, restrict the export of raw minerals and strengthen local content requirements in the oil and gas sector.
He said such interventions were important in ensuring that natural resources contribute directly to national development and improve the livelihoods of citizens.
However, he cautioned that the trade arrangement would not achieve its full potential if member states continued depending on exports of unprocessed raw materials.
He said African countries needed to build their capacity to manufacture and trade finished products within the continent rather than remain suppliers of raw materials to external markets
The Chairperson of the CPA Uganda Branch, Naome Kabasharira, said the seminar was taking place at a time when natural resources were increasingly driving discussions on regional economic transformation.
She said the existence of natural resources did not automatically translate into improved livelihoods, adding that Parliament had a critical role in ensuring that resource wealth benefits citizens.
“As parliamentarians, we are acutely aware that the mere existence of natural resources is not automatically translated into broad development and improved livelihoods for our citizens,” Kabasharira said.
She identified parliamentary oversight of extraction contracts and licensing, enforcement of local content laws, value addition and beneficiation as key areas requiring legislative attention.
Kabasharira said local content policies should ensure that citizens participate in the resource sector through employment, skills development, enterprise opportunities and ownership.
She also called for stronger measures to address illicit financial flows and aggressive tax avoidance, which she said continue to undermine Africa's development ambitions.
She noted that weak governance, opaque transactions and profit shifting deprive governments of revenue that could otherwise finance essential services such as healthcare, education, infrastructure and social development.