Across the continent, a powerful narrative is progressively gaining ground: Africa is integrating. This is not just a perception: it is supported by data. Intra-African trade has been rising in both value and political importance. It reached approximately $220.3 billion in 2024, marking double-digit growth in recent years. Institutions such as the UN Economic Commission for Africa consistently highlight this upward trend, with projections suggesting that trade within Africa could increase by up to 45% by 2045 under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). At the same time, political discourse has clearly shifted. African leaders, policymakers, and development institutions increasingly frame intra-African trade as the cornerstone of economic resilience and sovereignty, especially in response to global shocks and external dependency. Yet beneath the surface, the reality is more complex.

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A useful way to understand why some regions industrialized faster than others is to look beyond what they produce and focus instead on how they built their productive capacity. Industrialization is not simply about factories, exports, or infrastructure. It is, at its core, a process through which economies accumulate knowledge, skills, and organizational capabilities over time. Seen from this perspective, an important difference emerges between the historical experience of much of East and South Asia and that of many African countries.

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