The head of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat said Africa’s industrialization drive will depend on building manufacturing capacity alongside a market large enough to absorb locally made products, highlighting investments in fertilizer and vehicle production in Angola as examples of the continent’s ambitions.
Speaking during a visit to Angola’s international trade fair, FILDA, AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene toured a $2 billion fertilizer complex under construction in Soyo and an automobile assembly plant in the Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Zone, arguing that industrial production and continental market integration must advance together.
“The industrialisation of our continent will be led by Africans. Africa is a net food importer, yet nothing condemns us to remain one,” Mene said during the visit to the AMUFERT natural gas-to-fertilizer project.
The fertilizer plant, being developed by the OPAIA Group in Angola’s Zaire Province, is designed to convert the country’s natural gas into fertilizer capable of meeting domestic demand while producing surplus volumes for export to other African markets.
The visit underscored one of the AfCFTA’s central objectives, encouraging African countries to process raw materials domestically instead of exporting them in unprocessed form and importing higher-value finished products.
Mene also visited OPAIA Motors, where vehicles are assembled under the slogan “Made in Africa for the world,” saying manufacturing investments require access to the continent-wide market created under the AfCFTA.
“A factory reaches its full potential only when what it makes can travel,” he said.
The Secretary-General participated in a traditional blessing ceremony at the fertilizer site and planted a tree before test-driving a locally assembled sedan, symbolic gestures that the Secretariat said reflected the balance between industrial development, sustainability and African ownership of economic transformation.
FILDA, Angola’s largest international trade fair, continues this week in Luanda, where governments and businesses are seeking new investment and trade opportunities under the continental free trade agreement.
