Africa is in a stronger position than at any point in recent decades to attract manufacturing and other industries shifting away from Asia as geopolitical tensions reshape global supply chains, according to Professor Benedict Oramah, former president of Afreximbank.
The continent’s prospects have improved because the African Continental Free Trade Area is addressing market fragmentation while a network of African financial institutions has developed the capacity to finance projects at scale, Oramah said in an interview at AAM 2026.
“Africa can seize that moment,” Oramah said, describing the current global upheaval as a major opportunity for the continent.
The global economic system that emerged after World War II is being disrupted by geopolitical tensions, deglobalization and a shift away from efficiency-driven supply chains toward networks aligned with geopolitical interests, he said.
That change could benefit Africa by creating an opportunity to attract industries that are relocating from Asia, Oramah said.
During the era of globalization, capital moved from developed economies with large pools of capital to countries with lower labor costs, contributing to the expansion of manufacturing in Asia and the rise of China as the world’s manufacturing hub. Africa largely failed to capture that investment because its markets were fragmented and it lacked major financial institutions capable of co-financing projects at scale, he said.
Those constraints are changing.
Oramah said African multilateral financial institutions including Afreximbank, the Trade and Development Bank and the African Trade Insurance Agency now have a combined balance sheet of about $100 billion. Africa also has a market loan of about $50 billion, providing financing capacity that was largely absent when globalization began.
“These entities can co-finance projects and even finance projects on their own at scale,” he said.
That financing capacity is important because foreign investment is not limited to capital, Oramah said. Foreign direct investment can also bring technology, management expertise and access to international markets.
But African countries first need to establish conditions that make investment attractive to domestic investors, he said.
“What will make an African put money in a manufacturing plant in Africa?” Oramah said. “Anything that can make a rational business person in Africa invest in Africa, that thing will also make it rational for an investor in Australia, in America, in Europe, to bring money.”
African investors could also play a crucial role as first movers, providing foreign investors with confidence to enter sectors and markets on the continent, he said.
Oramah said Africa’s ability to finance its own development and attract external investment should therefore be viewed as complementary rather than competing objectives.
The continent still needs foreign capital, he said, because international investors can provide capabilities beyond financing. But the presence of African capital and African financial institutions can help create the initial investment momentum needed to attract larger international flows.
The former Afreximbank chief rejected the view that perceptions of African risk should prevent investment.
He cited the Dangote refinery as an example of a project that initially faced skepticism but ultimately demonstrated what could happen when entrepreneurial capacity, political support and financing are brought together.
“Failure is not an option,” Oramah said. “We have all the ingredients.”
He argued that the biggest threat to Africa’s opportunity would be failing to act while global supply chains are being reorganized.
With greater financial capacity, a continent-wide market and growing regional financial institutions, Africa now has tools that were missing during the earlier wave of globalization, Oramah said.
The challenge is to deploy them quickly enough to capture industries seeking new production locations and to ensure that African capital participates alongside foreign investment in the continent’s industrial transformation.
