South Africa has called for accelerated African integration, stronger industrialisation and greater continental ownership of development as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) marked its 25th anniversary.
Speaking at a high-level business breakfast in Cape Town, Deputy President Paul Mashatile said Africa must deepen intra-continental trade and strengthen regional value chains to achieve the goals of the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
The event brought together government officials, business leaders and development partners, including former South African President Thabo Mbeki, one of NEPAD’s founding architects.
Launched in 2001, NEPAD was designed as the African Union’s flagship development framework to promote economic growth, regional integration and poverty reduction across the continent. It was later integrated into the AU’s institutional structure in 2018 as the AU Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD).
Mashatile said AUDA-NEPAD now serves as the main implementation arm of Agenda 2063, the African Union’s long-term development blueprint, and stressed the importance of “African ownership” of the continent’s development trajectory.
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He warned that despite progress over the past two decades, Africa still faces major structural gaps in infrastructure, industrial capacity, energy access and digital connectivity.
The deputy president said the continent cannot continue exporting raw materials while importing finished goods at higher value, arguing that this model limits job creation and long-term economic transformation.
“The future of Africa depends on beneficiation, manufacturing, processing, logistics integration, energy cooperation, and digital industrialisation,” he said.
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Mashatile urged African countries to move faster in implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area (African Continental Free Trade Area), which aims to create a single market for goods and services across the continent.
He said stronger implementation of the agreement would help unlock intra-African trade and support the development of regional industrial value chains.
The deputy president also called for reforms to the global financial system, including improved representation for developing countries in institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
He argued that financing mechanisms should better reflect the needs and priorities of the Global South, particularly in areas such as infrastructure development, climate adaptation and industrialisation.
Mashatile’s remarks come at a time when African economies are seeking to strengthen resilience amid global economic uncertainty, rising debt levels and ongoing pressure to diversify production away from commodity dependence.
AU officials have increasingly emphasised the importance of regional integration as a pathway to growth, noting that intra-African trade remains significantly lower than trade within other major economic regions.
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The NEPAD@25 commemoration is expected to continue discussions on financing development, accelerating industrialisation and improving policy coordination among African states as part of broader efforts to advance Agenda 2063 targets.
