By Guest WriterSpeaker of Parliament Rt Hon Jacob Marksons Oboth has called on African legislators to champion value addition and move the continent away from exporting raw materials.The Speaker made the call yesterday while opening the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Africa Region Capacity Development Seminar at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel in Entebbe.The seminar runs from 9 to 13 November 2026 under the theme “From Extraction to Transformation: Parliamentary Leadership in Securing Africa’s Resource Wealth for Sustainable Development.”It has brought together legislators from South Africa, Rwanda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia and Uganda.“Exporting raw materials does not solve our development challenges as a continent,” Speaker Oboth told the delegates.“Africa will not secure economic sovereignty unless its legislators take the lead in making sure our raw materials benefit our own people, not only the rich countries,” he added.He said Africa’s problem is not a lack of wealth but the failure to turn that wealth into prosperity for its people.“We extract and export raw materials while processing, manufacturing, employment and profits largely accumulate elsewhere. This can only be reversed by strong legislation in our respective countries,” he said.MPs must lead the shiftThe Speaker said the responsibility for this change lies with legislators. He urged them to use their legislative, budgetary and oversight powers to improve accountability in the management of Africa’s natural resources.“Scrutinize extraction contracts, and enforce local content laws in order to close the loopholes that allow illicit financial flows,” he said.He added that African communities must participate in decisions affecting their livelihoods, benefit from resource extraction in their areas and be protected against displacement and environmental degradation.Speaker Oboth said the real benefits of natural resources come only when they are turned into finished products that create industries, jobs and greater market value. He gave coffee and crude oil as examples.“Beyond cultivation and extraction, these products offer value in processing, packaging, marketing and wealth creation,” he said.Uganda’s exampleThe Speaker commended President Yoweri Museveni for leading Uganda’s value addition agenda. He pointed to government initiatives that promote local processing of coffee, maize, sugar and tea, restrict the export of unprocessed minerals and protect local content in the oil and gas sector.He cautioned, however, that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will only reach its full potential if member states prioritise value addition and reduce their dependence on exporting unprocessed raw materials.Resources alone are not enoughThe Chairperson of the CPA Uganda Branch, Hon Naome Kabasharira, said the seminar comes at a time when natural resources are driving economic transformation across the region.“As parliamentarians, we are acutely aware that the mere existence of natural resources does not automatically translate into broad development and improved livelihoods for our citizens,” she said.She outlined the seminar’s focus areas: parliamentary oversight of extraction contracts and licensing; local content laws that give citizens a stake through jobs, skills, enterprise and ownership; value addition and beneficiation; and measures to curb illicit financial flows and aggressive tax avoidance.She described illicit financial flows and aggressive tax avoidance as major threats to Africa’s development, saying weak governance, opaque transactions and profit shifting deprive governments of money needed for healthcare, education, infrastructure and social development. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).