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<p>African finance ministers are meeting this week to discuss the state of industrialization and diversification. Historically, industrialization has been associated with job creation, poverty reduction and rapid growth in countries that are on development path. Africa has recently embarked on that path. Dr. Mama Keita from UNECA joins CNBC Africa to highlight what it will take to achieve it.</p>


UNECA’s Mama Keita on Africa’s road to industrialization

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<p>Tanzania is looking for investors to explore areas with high potential for natural gas discoveries. This is in line with the country’s efforts to harness energy sector and reach industrialization targets. Meanwhile, Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) collected record taxes of over $770mn in September, the highest since the country’s independence. To discuss this, Bankable Partner, Ivan Tarimo joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Bankable Partner’s Ivan Tarimo on how Tanzania can attract investment in the energy sector

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<p>At the ongoing Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) International Trade Fair happening in Kenya,it has been indicated that there is need to come up with innovative and practical strategies to promote industrialization and enhance trade in our region. Sandra Uwera, CEO of Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Business Council joined CNBC Africa for more.</p>


COMESA CEO Sandra Uwera on the impact of the AfCFTA

<p>By Professor Landry Signé, David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program and Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution, distinguished fellow at Stanford University’s Center for African Studies, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and author of “Innovating Development Strategies in Africa: The Role of International, Regional and National Actors.”</p>
<p>How to unlock the manufacturing and industrialization potential in Africa? The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (IDDA III, 2016-2025) but the gap between the tremendous potential of the sector and the actual performance remains monumental. In order to help bridge the gap and offer business and policy leaders with Africa’s biggest opportunities and perspectives in the sector, the Brookings’s Africa Growth Initiative has just released a report entitled The potential of manufacturing and industrialization in Africa: Trends, opportunities, and strategies.</p>
<p>In fact, among policymakers and scholars alike, a robust manufacturing sector is broadly understood as a fundamental path to economic growth and development. The most recent illustration is the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in March 2018, a single market for goods and services in Africa that aims to unlock manufacturing potential and facilitate industrialization, driving sustainable growth and jobs among other objectives. The key boon of manufacturing is that it absorbs large swaths of workers and places them into productive and decent paying jobs. Throughout history, this exact recipe has transformed the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan, and Germany into some of the world’s wealthiest nations. Most recently, a new age of industrialization has helped push China into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies boasting the largest middle class, with other Southeast Asian countries following closely behind. These are all examples of how industrialization can generate rapid structural change, drive development, and alleviate poverty and unemployment.</p>
<p>However, this narrative seems to exclude many African nations. Despite their manufacturing potential and promising trajectories, most African countries have remained relatively dearth of factories. This limited industrial development represents a missed opportunity for economic transformation and quality employment generation that alleviates poverty.</p>
<p>The silver lining is the potential. Business-to-business spending in manufacturing in Africa is projected to reach $666.3 billion by 2030, $201.28 billion more than that it did in 2015. Irene Yuan Sun, author and consultant, considers Africa to be “the world’s next great manufacturing center”, potentially capturing part of the 100 million labor-intensive manufacturing jobs that will leave China by 2030. This trend creates a huge opportunity for the continent, not only for countries such as South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria (all regional outperformers in the Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index), but also for newer players such as Ethiopia, Morocco, Rwanda, and others (all of whom have recently adopted policies enabling manufacturing and industrial development).</p>
<p>Today, leaders are increasingly realizing that manufacturing is a major factor in helping Africa achieve their goals of successfully reaching the next stage of economic development. The African Union has put the sector front and center in its Agenda 2063. African governments are seeking new and innovative ways to attract investment and nurture industry, implementing strategies that involve targeted investment in infrastructure, improved regional integration, and the establishment of special economic zones (SEZs) for priority subsectors.</p>
<p>However, in order to reach its manufacturing and industrial potential, much needs to be done by the public and private sectors to increase Africa’s economic complexity, diversity, competitiveness, and productivity. This report explores some of the key structural constraints that have prevented Africa’s manufacturing sector from maturing and from launching the same kind of economic modernization process witnessed in other developing regions. It also conducts a cross-national comparison of the manufacturing sector in Africa, providing illustrative examples of countries that are experiencing four unique trajectories of industrial development, and identifying specific opportunities in each country based on the size and level of competitiveness of their manufacturing markets. Finally, with special attention to current major transformations, the report draws conclusions about the future of the manufacturing sector in Africa.</p>
<p>The report ultimately offers business leaders an accessible overview of Africa’s biggest opportunities in the manufacturing sector, discussing trends and perspectives by 2030. It provides policymakers with some options likely to attract private investors, accelerate manufacturing and industrial development, and contribute to growth and poverty alleviation, facilitating the fulfillment of the SDGs and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. While policy solutions are likely to differ across countries, manufacturing will be central to Africa’s ability to meet its development goals.</p>


OpEd: How to unlock the manufacturing and industrialization potential in Africa

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<p>As part of its strategy to transform Africa through industrialization, the African Development Bank invested over 240 million US dollars in the expansion of Namibia’s Walvis Bay Port. CNBC Africa takes a look at how this project is impacting the people of Namibia.</p>


AfDB invests $240mn for expansion of Namibia’s Walvis Bay Port

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<p>SEPLAT CEO, Austin Avuru says Africa’s energy requirement must be a catalyst to industrialization and GDP growth as the continent strives to meet its increasing energy demand.</p>


Africa urged to invest more in energy to spur growth

<p>Dakar, Senegal &#8211; The fast rate at which Africa is urbanising– one of the fastest in the world – is giving African decision and policy makers an opportunity to rethink the path urbanization has so far trod on and chose one which will contribute to Africa achieving the continental targets for inclusive growth and transformation.</p>
<p>The Economic Report for Africa 2017, which was launched this weekend during the Africa Development Week – with the theme “Urbanization and Industrialization for Africa’sTransformation” – says that Africa has so far followed its own path of urbanization, which is weakly linked to structural transformation. This has resulted in the loss of many opportunities for enhanced growth and productivity, for poverty reduction and for social development.</p>
<p>“Urbanization in many African countries has not been driven by improving agricultural productivity,” says the Report. “Most countries are urbanizing rapidly amid declining or stagnant industrial output and low agricultural poverty.”</p>
<p>But with Africa now approaching 50% urbanization, governments at all levels have to make hard choices for the scale and type of investments they need to make, and for the spatial pattern and urban form they want to see, says the Report.</p>
<p>Governments are encouraged to take advantage of the changing patterns of urban consumption and rising demand for manufactured and processed goods to conceive and implement industrialization policies to cater for such needs. The largely unmet urban housing needs also provide an opportunity to improve living conditions and generate construction and service jobs.</p>
<p>The report argues that because of its multi-dimensional implications, urbanization should be anchored in national development plans that would harness it through a strategic cross-sectoral policy framework.</p>
<p>Governments also need to better manage urban form, improve public land management and the efficient functioning of property markets, streamline social housing programs, prioritize strategic infrastructure investments and place industry at the front rank for local economic development, says the Report.</p>
<p>It would also be important to back urbanization and industrialization policies by financing and institutional set ups that allow for coordinated implementation and budgetary support.</p>
<p>Capacity building should also be givenconsideration in urbanization and industrialization projects since the paucity of knowledge and evidence remains one of the biggest challenges in harmonizing urban and industrial development. “It is vital to develop tools to guide policy makers, planners and practitioners in formulating and implanting urban and industrial policies in a coordinated way, as they focus on national targets of growth and transformation,” concludes the Report.</p>


Industrialization

UNECA’s Mama Keita on Africa’s road to industrialization

Bankable Partner’s Ivan Tarimo on how Tanzania can attract investment in the energy sector

COMESA CEO Sandra Uwera on the impact of the AfCFTA

OpEd: How to unlock the manufacturing and industrialization potential in Africa

AfDB invests $240mn for expansion of Namibia’s Walvis Bay Port

Africa urged to invest more in energy to spur growth

African Development Week: Africa’s tough choices for urbanization

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Industrialization

UNECA’s Mama Keita on Africa’s road to industrialization

Bankable Partner’s Ivan Tarimo on how Tanzania can attract investment in the energy sector

COMESA CEO Sandra Uwera on the impact of the AfCFTA

OpEd: How to unlock the manufacturing and industrialization potential in Africa

AfDB invests $240mn for expansion of Namibia’s Walvis Bay Port

Africa urged to invest more in energy to spur growth

African Development Week: Africa’s tough choices for urbanization

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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