Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: In the latest Africa Industrialisation Index report, Morocco has overtaken South Africa as the continent’s leading industrial economy, driven by sustained industrial upgrading, export diversification, and strong industrial policy. South Africa remains a continental powerhouse, but its competitiveness has declined steadily. North and Southern Africa dominate output and export sophistication, while East, West, and Central Africa lag.
The Africa Industrial Investment Barometer (AfIIB) examines African industrialization through three indices — industrial diversification, attractiveness, and productive anchoring, which measures how deeply investment is embedded locally. North Africa leads on all three, drawing 56 per cent of cumulative continental investment between 2020 and 2025, with Morocco and Egypt at the forefront.
East Africa posts the continent’s second-highest productive-anchoring score owing to deep regional integration and complete agricultural value chains. By contrast, Southern Africa draws the highest share of high-value investment yet features weak vertical integration. For example, the region’s automotive plants assemble largely imported kits rather than sourcing from local supplier networks.
Africa’s industrial integration is low. Intra-African trade stands at just 14.4 per cent of total trade, reflecting weak regional production linkages and fragmented industrial ecosystems. The AII 2025, which assesses industrial development across 54 African countries from 2010 to 2024, finds that 41 countries improved their industrialization scores, with continental performance up six per cent. The strongest gains were recorded among lower-performing economies, a sign of convergence.
