Africa is one of the fastest-growing sports markets in the world. Its athletes compete globally. Its fans spend billions. And almost none of the gear, equipment, or stadium infrastructure they consume is manufactured on the continent. Afreximbank, the institution overseeing $40 billion in assets and Africa's continental trade finance mandate, has decided that this is an industrial problem — not a cultural footnote. Its 33rd Annual Meetings in El-Alamein will feature a panel placing sport at the centre of Africa's industrialisation agenda, with Rugby Africa's Herbert Mensah making the case in front of heads of state, ministers, and central bank governors. The global sports apparel industry will be worth $325 billion by 2034. Africa's share of that market is currently $30 billion, and it flows almost entirely to manufacturers outside the continent. That is not a small problem. It is a structural one — and it has the same shape as every other import dependency that has constrained African economic development for generations. The question worth following is not whether Africa should build a domestic sports manufacturing sector. That question answers itself. The question is whether the institutions with the capital and the authority to make it happen will act on the argument being made in El-Alamein, or file it alongside every other well-reasoned panel discussion that preceded it.