Africa manufacturing sector trails others in global performance in 2024
Africa’s manufacturing sector is said to have faced a lot of macroeconomic hurdles that significantly affected its performance, according to PAMA Manufacturing Global News 2025.
It stated that Africa’s manufacturing sector faced a lot of macroeconomic hurdles which include high inflationary pressures, rising interest rates, unstable international commodity prices, persistent strengthening in the US dollar, limited infrastructures, low foreign direct investment inflows in manufacturing, high tariffs, and lingering conflicts in several African countries.
“Despite the tough environment, some countries like Morocco, South Africa, and Egypt still showed a bit of resilience due to a diversified industrial base. Based on the African Development Bank report, manufacturing contributes around 11% to Africa’s GDP in 2024. The contribution was driven mostly by agro-processing (Nigeria, Kenya), automotive (Morocco, South Africa), and pharmaceuticals (Egypt, Rwanda). Nevertheless, African manufacturing value-addition notably slowed behind the global average in the past year, with expected improvement in the current year but below the pandemic period,” the global news stated.
In terms of manufacturing production, it highlighted that Africa remains highly vulnerable to both domestic and global economic shocks and attributed this to the absence of proactive policy responses which exacerbates the impact of these shocks, leading to long-term consequences for the continent’s economic performance and growth prospects.
Accordingly, it maintained that structural weaknesses including a low industrial base continue to hinder Africa’s manufacturing sector, while weak global demand further weighed down the continent’s industrial output and export performance.
