Sahara Group has called on African governments, investors and industry leaders to prioritise intra African investment as a pathway to industrialisation, stating that the continent's primary challenge is no longer ideas or resources but execution at scale. Speaking at the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) Week in Cape Town, South Africa, Executive Director of Sahara Group, Temitope Shonubi, stressed the need for a shift from fragmented national strategies to a unified continental investment mindset. He cited Africa's trade integration gap, noting that intra African trade accounts for only about 15 per cent of total trade, hindered by 54 different regulatory systems and multiple currencies. Shonubi introduced the company's T.R.I.P.S framework — Transform, Reform, Inform, Perform and Success — developed from three decades of operating across Africa's energy sector. He argued that despite foreign direct investment surpassing aid, perception inflates Africa's cost of capital by two to three times, discouraging long-term investment. A key barrier, he said, is the persistence of an aid-dependent narrative rather than positioning Africa as an investment partner. Shonubi highlighted that over 600 million Africans lack electricity access and called for scaled infrastructure delivery. Sahara Group currently has 2.7GW of installed power generation capacity and supplies electricity to over 1.5 million households.
Temitope Shonubi's intervention at ARDA Week cuts through the usual rhetoric by placing execution — not vision — at the centre of Africa's industrial future. His critique is not of ambition but of misalignment: 54 regulatory environments, dozens of currencies, and a lingering aid mentality continue to undermine what African capital and enterprise could achieve collectively. By anchoring Sahara Group's T.R.I.P.S framework in real operational experience across the energy value chain, Shonubi positions a private sector actor not just as a participant but as a blueprint provider in continental development.
The economic subtext is clear — Africa already attracts more investment than aid, yet the continent's structural fragmentation prevents capital from flowing efficiently. Shonubi's point about the inflated cost of capital due to perception hits hard: Nigerian and other African firms face higher financing hurdles not because of lacking potential, but because of systemic distrust bred by inconsistent policies and weak regional integration. The mention of AfCFTA's uneven implementation is telling, exposing a gap between political endorsement and on-the-ground reality. Sahara's own footprint — 2.7GW of power capacity and electricity supply to 1.5 million households — demonstrates what sustained execution looks like, contrasting sharply with the inertia that defines many public infrastructure efforts.
For ordinary Nigerians, especially the 600 million across Africa without electricity, the implication is direct: delayed regional integration means prolonged energy poverty, stunted job creation, and continued reliance on informal work. Shonubi's call to align education with industrial demand speaks to Nigeria's youth bulge — a generation being trained for non-existent white-collar jobs instead of value-added production. If Nigeria fails to plug into regional value chains, its workforce remains trapped in low-productivity roles.
This is not an isolated appeal. It reflects a growing shift where African multinationals are stepping into leadership roles traditionally reserved for governments and development partners. Sahara Group's stance signals a new phase: African solutions, driven by African execution, may be the only path to meaningful scale.
