?? Empowering Africa's future through Sustainable innovations and industrialization

Happy Africa Industrialisation Day!

The importance of industrialisation to Africa's growth potential cannot be overstated. According to the African Development Bank Group (AFDB) Industrialisation Index 2022, https://bit.ly/46nfjIb Africa has the potential to become the next global frontier for industrial development due to its young labour force, enormous natural resources, and rapidly developing internal markets.

Over the last few decades, African countries have made significant progress in industrial and technological advancement. However, while an increasing number of African countries have sought to diversify their economies and promote industrial development in recent years, only a small number, including Algeria, #Botswana, #Gabon, #Mauritius, #Namibia, and #South Africa, have shown promising signs of #industrialisation or can boast of advanced manufacturing sectors, reports the AFDB. Excellent examples include the industrialised leather industry in Ethiopia and pharmaceuticals in East Africa.

Others, such as #Ethiopia, #Rwanda, and #Morocco, are also constructing networks of industrial parks and special economic zones (SEZs), as well as other investments aimed at fostering SME in Africa.

Despite these promising areas, Africa's overall performance in industrial growth remains poor. Africa has been mainly excluded from the growth of global value chains due to poor manufacturing performance. According to the AFDB, the continent’s contribution to global manufacturing is currently 1.9%, placing it at the bottom of the global value chain.

The low level of industrialisation in Africa can be attributed to unfavourable policies such as state-led import substitution, structural adjustment, and investment climate reforms, all of which have hampered the growth of Africa's manufacturing sector and industrial development.

Proactive and inclusive industrial policies are critical to reversing the poor level of industrialization in Africa and delivering on the ambitious goals of African industrialisation such as the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Inclusive policies will allow women to play a major part in the economic growth and transformation of Africa.

Inclusive industrial policies and measures require investing in skills and capacity for women, investing in infrastructure, diversifying African small businesses’ exports, and promoting strategic new industries that enable competitive and comparative advantage for Africa’s women-led processing businesses.

The 2023 AID https://bit.ly/3sFZMW8 under the theme “Accelerating Africa’s industrialization through the empowerment of African women in processing for an integrated market” focuses on the critical role of women-led enterprises in driving Africa’s industrialization through processing and value addition, as well as the integration of African markets under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Today, in celebration of #AfricanIndustrialisationDay (AID) 2023, we at ETK Group join stakeholders and governments in highlighting the importance of Africa’s industrialization and the challenges faced by industrialization on the continent

#AfricaIndustrialisationDay2023. #AfricaeconomicGrwoth