PAMA EDITORIAL: Empowering Africa’s Industrial Future
As Africa continues to reflect on the strides made in Africa’s manufacturing landscape, the April 2025 edition of the PAMA News Bulletin highlights both the promise and the pressing challenges facing our industries and continent.
1.0 African Continental Free Trade Area: Impact and Opportunities Assessment for Africa’s Small and Medium-scale Industries.
The AfCFTA framework represents not just a trade pact but a strategic continental mechanism for reconfiguring Africa’s industrial development. Yet, as this April 2025 edition of the PAMA Bulletin reveals, realising AfCFTA’s full developmental dividend requires far more than tariff reductions and market access. It demands systemic transformation across infrastructure, industrial capacity, regulatory coherence, and enterprise competitiveness. The PAMA, through its latest empirical assessment of AfCFTA on SMIs, presents compelling evidence on both the latent potential and structural vulnerabilities of African SMIs under the framework. While 96% of SMIs indicate readiness to engage in intra-African trade, infrastructure deficits, low production volumes, limited access to finance, and knowledge gaps on AfCFTA’s protocols continue to constrain effective participation. Without targeted interventions, especially in trade facilitation, export clustering, and regulatory awareness, the benefits of AfCFTA risk being under-realised.
2.0 PAMA Webinar: Boosting Africa’s Manufacturing Under AfCFTA
Our recent continental webinar further expanded policy discourse on the subject, situating industrial growth within the triad of raw material intelligence, harmonised standards and integrated trade systems. Policy experts, including Prof. Nnanyelugo Ike-Muonso, Director-General of Raw Materials Research and Development Council, Nigeria, and Mrs. Ron Osman from the African Union Commission, Addis Ababa, at the webinar reiterated that Africa’s industrial progress must be anchored in endogenous inputs, supported by investment in technology absorption, and governed by standards aligned with continental frameworks like the Pan African Quality Infrastructure (PAQI). The insights around insecurity, logistics fragmentation, and asymmetric SME-market power dynamics highlight the urgency of coordinated action from both regional institutions and national governments. As we prepare for the Intra-Africa Trade Fair in Algeria, these discussions must translate into actionable strategies that empower our manufacturers.
3.0 Africa’s Race to Plastic Ban: An Environmental Necessity or Threat to Local Manufacturing?
Meanwhile, the feature on Africa’s accelerating plastic ban policies introduces a new layer of complexity. While environmental sustainability is non-negotiable, the current pace and design of single-use plastic (SUP) bans raise significant concerns for local industrial resilience. Regulatory asymmetry, cost-prohibitive alternatives, and the absence of viable transition frameworks risk undermining job-creating value chains. As PAMA argues, a just transition rooted in circular economy principles, anchored on regional recycling hubs, incentivised R&D, and extended producer responsibility, offers a more technically sound and inclusive pathway to a green economy and clean environment. This edition calls for a rebalancing of Africa’s industrial policy architecture, one that integrates environmental mandates, trade protocols, and manufacturing realities through a continental industrial compact. Such a compact must prioritise SME integration, strategic incentives, and infrastructure upgrades, while leveraging the AfCFTA as a platform for industrial policy harmonisation.
4.0 Macroeconomic considerations
Africa’s macroeconomic landscape, as outlined in this bulletin, reflects a continent in transition. From Ethiopia’s robust 7.9% GDP growth to Nigeria’s stabilising exchange rates, there are signs of resilience. Yet, these gains hinge on a manufacturing sector that can compete globally. PAMA remains committed to evidence-based advocacy, multi-stakeholder engagement, and knowledge-driven leadership in advancing Africa’s manufacturing competitiveness.
—The Editorial Board, PAMA Manufacturing Global News Bulletin
