Bangladesh, April 27 -- For much of the post-colonial era, Africas development model has been deeply entangled with foreign aid. Billions of dollars flowed into the continents coffers, financing schools, clinics, roads, and emergency relief efforts. Yet, despite some notable achievements, aid often had unintended consequences – fostering dependency, stunting local innovation, and allowing governance shortfalls to persist without consequence. Today, however, the ground beneath Africas feet is shifting, and the continent faces a moment of truth: a forced but necessary march toward true self-reliance.

In 2015, Kenyas then-president Uhuru Kenyatta articulated a warning that now feels prophetic: Africa could no longer entrust its future...