Business Council for Africa (BCAfrica) has isolated Morocco, Egypt, South Africa and Mauritius as the only economies with the alignment required to sustain industrial growth, while Rwanda and Nigeria show meaningful progress but remain incomplete in their trajectory.
BCAfrica disclosed this in its just launched 2025 Real Economic Development (RED) Index on industrial development in Africa.
According to the report, industrialisation in Africa is not only constrained by ambition, but by structure.
The RED Index identifies, with clarity and consistency, the conditions that determine whether economies can transform at scale and finds that most African countries do not yet meet them.
The report further indicated that the majority of African economies are classified as either vulnerable or stalled.
The Index evaluates each economy across three decisive dimensions: Engines of Industrialisation, representing foundational capabilities; Accelerators, determining the pace of transformation; and Decelerators, the structural constraints that can stall or reverse progress.
In addition, the report indicated that corruption and security instability remain the most significant decelerators across the continent, undermining institutional effectiveness and limiting the execution of industrial policy.
Grounded in the historical trajectories of economies such as South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brazil, Morocco, and Ethiopia, the RED Index isolates the factors that consistently underpin successful industrialisation.
It provided a decision-making framework for countries in implementing long-term industrial strategy.
Chairman of the Business Council for Africa, Arnold Ekpe, said:“This is not just an index. It is a call to action for African policymakers, investors, and businesses to take ownership of Africa’s industrial future and commit to the structural changes required to deliver sustained growth.”
As global capital seeks scalable and resilient growth opportunities, the RED Index provides a lens for identifying where industrialisation is viable, where structural risks remain elevated and where targeted intervention can unlock long-term.
