Morocco overtakes South Africa as Africa’s top industrial economy in AfDB’s 2025 index, driven by upgrading and exports.
Morocco Takes the Lead
Morocco has overtaken South Africa to become Africa’s leading industrial economy, according to the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) 2025 Africa Industrialization Index, released alongside the first Africa Industrial Investment Barometer during the AfDB Annual Meetings in Brazzaville.
The Bank Group released the 2025 edition of its Africa Industrialization Index (AII) alongside the first Africa Industrial Investment Barometer (AfIIB), produced by WITBA Invest SA in partnership with Trendeo. Together, the reports provide a detailed assessment of Africa’s industrial landscape, highlighting which countries are advancing fastest, where industrial investment is concentrated, and how much value creation is retained within the continent.
The AII can be read here and the AfIIB, here.
The ranking is based on an assessment of industrial development across 54 African countries between 2010 and 2024. Morocco’s rise was attributed to sustained industrial upgrading, export diversification and strong industrial policy.
The Africa Industrial Investment Barometer
The AfIIB evaluates African industrialization through three measures: industrial diversification, investment attractiveness, and productive anchoring, an indicator of how strongly investment is rooted within local economies. North Africa ranked highest across all three categories, attracting 56 percent of cumulative industrial investment on the continent between 2020 and 2025, led by Morocco and Egypt.
“The continent’s real deficit is no longer the absence of industrial strategies. What is still lacking is execution discipline, continuity in public policy, and systemic coherence between financing, energy, infrastructure, human capital, governance, and industrial vision,” said Dr Harouna Kaboré, President of WITBA Invest.
“African industrialization can no longer remain a statement of intent or a theoretical projection. It must become a measurable, managed, and strategically driven dynamic,” he added.
South Africa Remains Significant
While Morocco now leads the ranking, South Africa remains a major industrial powerhouse. However, the reports indicate that its competitiveness has declined steadily.
North Africa and Southern Africa continue to dominate industrial output and export sophistication, while East, West and Central Africa continue to lag in industrial development and regional production linkages.
Investment Shifts Toward North Africa
North Africa leads across diversification, attractiveness and productive anchoring, drawing 56% of cumulative continental industrial investment between 2020 and 2025, with Morocco and Egypt topping the list.
The broader picture remains mixed. Africa accounts for less than 2% of global manufacturing output and 1.4% of global manufactured exports, while manufacturing value-added per capita has fallen below 2014 levels.
Continental Progress, Structural Gaps and Next Steps
Despite those challenges, 41 of the 54 countries assessed improved their industrialization scores, while overall continental performance rose by 6%.
However, intra-African trade remains low at 14.4% of total trade, reflecting fragmented industrial ecosystems and weak regional production linkages.
AfDB’s Director for Industrial and Trade Development, Ousmane Fall, said the report served as both a diagnosis and roadmap, “It shows that 41 of our 54 countries are now moving in the right direction, but it also reminds us that industrialization at scale demands resilient infrastructure, value addition close to source, and finance mobilized on African terms. That is precisely what the Four Cardinal Points are designed to deliver.”
The report also calls for stronger regional integration anchored on the African Continental Free Trade Area, supported by reliable energy, industrial infrastructure, technical skills and harmonized standards.
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