President William Ruto of Kenya told the 81st UN General Assembly that Africa’s exclusion from the Security Council now threatens the body’s credibility and the world’s ability to finance growth.
Africa has 54 UN members, more than a quarter of the 193-state Assembly, and about 1.5 billion people. It has no permanent Council seat.
Five states hold veto power the other 188 lack. Ruto said that bargain fitted 1945, when most of Africa was still colonised and only four African states sat at San Francisco.
“We are frequently the subject of its decisions, permanently discussed but permanently excluded,” he said, arguing the gap now undercuts trust in collective security.
Reform talks have run since 2009. The Pact for the Future named redress of Africa’s “historical injustice” a priority. Seventeen years on, membership, the veto and regional seats remain unresolved.
Ruto linked that political deadlock to money. Developing countries held less than a third of a record $102 trillion in global public debt in 2024, yet paid about $1 trillion in interest.
African non-bank capital pools now exceed $2 trillion. Pension and insurance assets have crossed $1 trillion. External flows into Africa from 2014 to 2024 totalled about $1.7 trillion.
The bottleneck, he said on the UNGA margins, is rules and risk pricing, not a shortage of savings. Pension funds sit next to unfunded power plants and railways.
Kenya used the week to pitch industrial projects, including a planned East Africa refinery at Lamu, cited at about $17 billion, and talks with Aliko Dangote and the Africa Finance Corporation.
Ruto said Africa “does not come to plead” but to propose: minerals, farms, renewables, a young workforce and the African Continental Free Trade Area as a platform to process more of what it now exports raw.
The Assembly theme is “Restoring trust, managing transformation.” Ruto argued neither goal is possible if institutions built for another map refuse to change.
UNSC expansion still needs agreement among the permanent five and a two-thirds General Assembly vote. Africa’s common position seeks permanent seats with full rights, including the veto.
