WAKIAGA: Africa's industrial moment: It's time to deliver on energy, jobs and industry

AFRICA’S industrial moment can’t wait. With the promise of a 1.5-billion-person market under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a rising generation of innovators and deep untapped industrial potential, Africa is laying the groundwork for a new era of production.

But momentum alone is not enough. The question now is whether this shift can be matched by the right kind of policy and delivery and that is where UNIDO’s latest Africa Industrial Development Report comes in.

I had the opportunity to speak at the report launch in Johannesburg last month. The report focuses on a new era of industrial policy in Africa through the lens of the Sustainable Development Goals.

It zeroes in on three critical goals: SDG 7 on clean and affordable energy, SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth and SDG 9 on industry, innovation and infrastructure.

The message was clear that Africa is at a critical inflection point with progress within reach if we act boldly to close the gaps in energy access, job creation and industrial capacity. On SDG 7, there’s good news and tough news in the report.

Energy access across the continent now sits at 58 per cent, improving faster than any other indicator at 1.12 percentage points per year. But the continent is still 67 percentage points behind on clean energy.

North Africa is pulling ahead on both access and affordability, with Southern and Northern Africa leading on clean energy adoption.

Our renewables, sun, wind, hydro and geothermal give us a real chance to leapfrog into a clean energy future. However, we won’t get there without investment in generation, grids and local capacity to manufacture clean technology.

On SDG 8, the challenge is how Africa translates economic growth into jobs. The data shows that growth was slowing before Covid-19, exposing deep structural weaknesses.

Youth unemployment and gender inequality continue to rise. When you zoom in, the picture is mixed: North Africa has had strong GDP growth but has struggled to convert this into job creation.

Southern Africa faces a dual challenge of sluggish growth and high unemployment. Eastern Africa is faring better on both fronts, with relatively stronger growth and job creation.

Central Africa, meanwhile, lags across the board a clear signal for urgent and targeted reform. SDG 9 is where the continent appears to be furthest off track. The continent’s performance in industry, innovation and infrastructure is lagging significantly.

Infrastructure investment was gaining traction before the pandemic but has since lost steam. Innovation, too, is hampered by low research and development investment.

Demonstrating that Africa is not moving fast enough in the global technology race. Still, there are some bright spots: Western and Northern Africa are ahead in industrial growth and North Africa is leading the way in innovation.

So, how do we shift gears? Private sector leadership and government coordination are two non-negotiables.

Let us start with the private sector. Across Africa, private enterprise drives 90 per cent of production, 80 per cent of employment, and 70 per cent of GDP.

You simply can’t design credible or effective industrial strategy and policy without this demographic in the room.

Private sector-led growth is not a nice-to-have— it is the engine of jobs, exports and resilience. Yet, too often, industrial strategies are designed in isolation, without meaningful input from the very firms expected to utilise them.

That needs to change. Going forward, governments should institutionalise structured public–private dialogue not just at launch but throughout the entire policy cycle.

This means engaging businesses early, co-developing sector roadmaps and creating feedback loops to adjust policies in real time. Government coordination is the next lever for government to move beyond good intentions.

Many countries have well-articulated industrial plans, but their impact is often diluted by overlapping mandates, weak inter-ministerial coordination and a disconnect between strategy and delivery.

What is needed is a “full stack” approach to industrial policy that moves from ambition to action. This starts with strategy.

Industrial policy must be anchored in a national vision and championed at the highest level. All ministries from finance and trade to energy and education need to be aligned behind a single direction of travel.

But a strategy is only useful if it’s translated into investable, executable plans. Next comes policy, the rulebook of incentives, regulations and trade frameworks.

These need to be grounded in market realities and responsive to firm-level needs. But the real bottleneck is often delivery. Execution requires a system: cross-government coordination, clear KPIs, timelines and a mechanism to track results and course correct in real time.

And finally, technology which is now the most essential and transformative tool in government’s hands, whether it is tracking industrial performance, targeting subsidies or managing regulatory compliance.

We need to treat digital tools as part of the core infrastructure of modern industrial policy. The Africa Industrial Development Report is a call to action.

We know what’s not working. We also know what’s possible. Now it’s time to deliver. Africa doesn’t need more strategies gathering dust. It needs more jobs. And it needs them now.

The Writer is an industrial policy, governance and private sector development expert and currently Senior Advisor (Global Lead), Industry & Commerce at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

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