The Continental Energy and Infrastructure Investment Forum (CEIIF) members stressed the need for actionable partnerships to advance industrialisation in Africa. The members of the Forum from Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia discussed the importance of organisation, energy and infrastructure development across the continent during their visit to the Coega Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Gqeberha.
The Forum serves as a premier platform that brings together industry leaders, policymakers, and investors to explore and catalyse opportunities within Africa’s energy and infrastructure sectors.
Speaking on behalf of the forum, the Chief Executive Officer of the South African Electrotechnical Export Council, Ms Chiboni Evans said the visit to Coega represented the core of CEIIF’s mandate of bringing regional partners together on the ground to see, assess, and to advance opportunities for industrialisation, energy, and infrastructure across Africa.
“What we must take from this experience is how to replicate and adapt these models to develop world-class SEZs in rural provinces. That is where the greatest opportunity lies for job creation, for value addition, and for inclusive growth. Herein lie the learnings for the rest of Africa to decentralise industry, to leverage regional resources, and to build zones that serve both urban and rural economies,” said Evans.
She added that COEGA demonstrated what is possible when a country builds world class Special Economic Zones.
“For our colleagues from the DRC, Botswana, and Zambia, this site visit offers practical insights on infrastructure design, investor facilitation, logistics, and skills pipelines that can be tailored to their own national and regional contexts,” she stressed.
Evans said the visit encouraged cross-border partnerships that advance Africa’s shared industrialisation agenda.
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