Global South Pole

‘Turning Assets Into Capital’: Researcher Sees New Path for Africa’s Economic Self-Reliance

Across Africa, one idea gaining traction is the securitization of national assets, a model that allows governments to convert future revenue streams into immediate capital for development. This approach is increasingly viewed as a practical pathway to unlock value from within domestic economies while strengthening financial independence.
Sputnik
Global South Pole spoke with Oru Allens Agbor, an independent Cameroonian policy researcher and development finance advocate, to explore how this model could shape Africa’s development financing landscape.
Agbor explained that securitization provides African countries with an opportunity to mobilize capital by anchoring financial instruments to predictable income sources such as infrastructure revenues or energy flows. In his view, this model not only reduces reliance on external debt but also helps deepen domestic capital markets and channel local savings into productive sectors that drive long-term growth.

"It [securitization]can play a transformative role in Africa's economic trajectory. When we talk about mobilizing capital from domestic and regional sources, obviously it's going to reduce dependency on volatile external borrowing and also gain greater control over our development priorities. When you mentioned the structural adjustment program, if you look at those in terms of the structural adjustment program like liberalization as well as privatization, this did not really suit the African challenge or the context, did not answer the African challenges. So, if we could rely on securitization as well as domestic resource mobilization or domestic capital, it is really going to help us to be independent in our development agenda as it meets our reality. Since we are the ones implementing it, we are the ones formulating it. Obviously, we'll take into cognizance our various challenges and also bring solutions that meet into these challenges," Agbor explained.

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