As the African continent seeks to industrialise and free itself from its dependence on raw materials, special economic zones are emerging as essential levers. With over 200 SEZs in Africa, but only 38% of them are fully operational, Stakeholders across the continent aim to develop SEZs aligned with the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area, capable of generating added value, creating jobs and boosting regional competitiveness.
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are emerging as a key lever for the industrialisation and diversification of the African continent increasingly less dependent on raw materials. The continent’s stakeholders are seeking to develop SEZs in line with the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area, capable of adding value, creating jobs and boosting regional competitiveness. If effectively implemented and adapted, SEZs can be the cornerstone of a stronger, more interconnected and industrially self-reliant Africa. Aligned with the African Continental Free Trade Area, they promise not only growth, but transformation.
“Special Economic Zones have been specifically defined as tools to enhance the promotion of inter-African trade within the African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)”.
Rebecca Nalumu, Director of Development and Investor Support, SEZ Uganda – Uganda
With intra- African trade accounting for only 15% of the continent’s total trade, key stakeholders across Africa are keen to make special economic zones a catalyst for industrialisation and regional integration. By harmonising industrial and fiscal policies, the African Continental Free Trade Area (CAFTA) hopes to build a vibrant, inclusive and globally competitive continental market.
“Special economic zones contribute quite significantly to manufacturing, as well as manufacturing for a particular country’s domestic market, but also for the regional and continental market. So this is a very important aspect of Africa’s overall industrialization efforts and the connection between the AfCFTA and the domestic markets production in terms of special economic zones, I think, is very clear, and so what the AfCFTA presents to governments and countries that have invested in special economic zones is an opportunity, an opportunity for the goods that are produced to have an additional market, which is the AfCFTA market”.
Wamkele Mene, Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat – South Africa
Although the continent has more than 200 special economic zones, less than 40 percent are fully functional. According to experts, to align these zones with the broader vision of the AfCFTA, each SEZ needs to be tailored to local economic realities and national development priorities.
« sometimes a specialised economic zone is set up or defined in a framework where traditions of villages and communities have not been involved or considered at all in this new economic dynamic ».
Raymond Tavares, UNIDO Resident Representative – Senegal
As a strategy for promoting industrialisation, attracting foreign direct investment and creating jobs, the continent is increasingly turning to special economic zones. Today, 47 African countries host more than 200 operational SEZs. Within the framework of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the AfCFTA Ministerial Regulation 1/2023 recognizes the role of SEZs in promoting industrialization and allows products manufactured in SEZs to be considered « originating products » within the meaning of the AfCFTA, provided they meet the criteria set out in Annex 2 of the Protocol on Trade in Goods.
