Johannesburg: The ECA Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa organized a study tour on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to foster automotive value chains in Southern Africa. The study tour, which aimed at exploring incentives and requirements that support development of successful SEZs, was attended by policy makers and private sector representatives from Namibia and Lesotho.
According to Ethiopian News Agency, the study tour was facilitated by Gauteng Provincial government, South Africa, in close collaboration with the Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone (TASEZ) and took place from 25 – 27 March 2025. During the consultations, Olayinka Bandele, Chief of the inclusive Industrialisation section at the ECA Sub-regional Office for Southern Africa (SRO-SA) highlighted the crucial role that ECA is playing in supporting the region to develop their industrial sectors, by using the AfCFTA as an anchor.
She stated that ECA works with the AfCFTA Secretariat, the African Union (AU) Commission and supporting financi
al institutional agencies such as Afreximbank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) in delivering results to the automotive industry. Bandele also noted that a future seamless movement of goods, services, and people across borders will support the sector’s regional value chains, linking it to global value chains.
She stressed on the increased appetite for member states to develop their automotive industry which is likely to propel key sectors of the economy including a higher volume of sustainable jobs. Bandele further emphasized that the automotive sector is one of the identified key sectors with demonstrable lasting capability to push the regional industrial cooperation due to its potentially strong local content input that allows for increased beneficiation of raw materials from across a range of countries.
Msokoli Ntombana, TASEZ’s Business Development Executive, made a presentation on the landscape of South Africa’s automotive industry and the role that TASEZ is currently playing in it. He insisted o
n the need for effective policy, private sector engagement, and a conducive regulatory framework for a successful SEZ.
Ntombana underscored the importance of integrating Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) into the automotive value chain as it presents a range of opportunities from raw material sourcing to manufacturing, distribution, and after-sales services. It was stressed on the need for Africa’s homegrown solutions in the automotive industry due to its abundant raw materials spread across the continent including polymers, and metals.
The Study Tour to TASEZ was an opportunity for senior officials to visit seven manufacturing plants supplying automotive components to Ford Motors and understand the depth of manufacturing capability, including technologies, raw material supply, and operations. UNECA through the Regional Integration and Trade Division (RITD) is also leading a study on standards and norms for successful SEZs in Africa.
The study aims to identify the standards and norms, their cont
exts, critical success factors, and enablers that have led to successful SEZs, defined on a range of criteria, across different regions. It also seeks to inform policy formulation to support the establishment and operationalization of new SEZs in Africa, and redesign the existing ones for better effectiveness, particularly in the context of the AfCFTA.