Prof. Douglas Boateng to address supply chain and procurement leaders in Zambia

Ing. Prof. Douglas Boateng, the widely acclaimed International Chartered Director and Chartered Engineer who has consistently championed integrating procurement, value chain, industrialisation strategy, and governance into national and continental development agendas, will deliver a keynote address at an international conference under the theme: “Breaking Down Barriers Through Made in Africa,” in Zambia from September 23 to 25, 2026.

The leading Pan-African governance strategist will challenge thousands of supply chain and procurement leaders across the continent with a reminder that “We cannot keep exporting the seed and importing the fruit”.

The meeting to be attended by procurement professionals, policymakers, corporate executives, academics and decision-makers from across Africa, is expected to be the largest professional gathering on supply chain and industrialisation ever assembled on the African continent.

Professor Boateng will argue that African-manufactured products should progressively carry MADE IN AFRICA as a shared continental identity, qualified by country of production — MADE IN AFRICA, Produced in Ghana; MADE IN AFRICA, Produced in Nigeria; MADE IN AFRICA, Produced in Zambia.

“The country of production tells us where the product comes from. MADE IN AFRICA tells the world the economic family to which it belongs,” he explains.

“A product can be proudly produced in Ghana and proudly Made in Africa. National pride and Pan-African economic identity should reinforce, not compete with each other.”

Professor Boateng contends that genuine continental integration demands more than customs posts and trade agreements.

He argues that it requires dismantling the psychological, procurement and institutional barriers that keep Africans from producing for, trading with, and confidently buying from one another.

He will therefore challenge the thousands of supply chain and procurement professionals expected at the gathering to see their everyday decisions as instruments of industrialisation.

“Every significant procurement decision is potentially an industrialisation decision. When an institution spends, it is also deciding whose factory receives demand, whose workers remain employed, and where tomorrow’s productive capability will be built.”

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