Africa’s prescription for its own future

The Covid-19 pandemic laid bare a brutal truth: at the height of a global health crisis, Africa was abandoned. Vaccines were promised but not delivered. When the world’s wealthiest countries hoarded doses, Africa was left waiting — exposed, vulnerable, and voiceless. 

We simply cannot allow this to happen again. And it won’t — if Africa truly takes its destiny into its own hands. 

Africa’s inability to produce basic vaccines and medicines left African lives and economies hanging in the balance, with some fatal results. But this crisis was only the beginning — after Covid-19 came mPox, which threatened another global pandemic, and again Africa was left in the lurch, followed by the harshest of blows in donor aid and funding cuts putting lives and livelihoods at risk — and so we face a wake-up call that Africa cannot continue to ignore. 

If this sequence of possibly catastrophic events doesn’t convince us that the time has come to pivot from dependency to sovereignty, by investing in local pharmaceutical manufacturing as a strategic imperative, we don’t know what will. 

Three transformative catalysts have converged to make this the most opportune moment in Africa’s post-independence history to industrialise our pharmaceutical sector:

• AfCFTA integration: all things being equal, with intra-African trade barriers slowly crumbling under the African Continental Free Trade Area, the pharmaceutical market — projected to exceed $70bn by 2030 — can finally scale across borders. All we need to do is set up an effective and efficient continental procurement system, which we are working on as this is being written.
• Political alignment: Leaders across Africa, the likes of Prof Benedict Oramah, Wamkele Mene, Dr Jean Kaseya, and Nardos Bekele-Thomas alongside ministers from South Africa, all spoke of their determination to turn words into action at the G20 High-Level Ministerial Dialogue held in Johannesburg on the April 14. They each spoke of their commitment and their resolve to ensure the continent will never again be at the mercy of external suppliers. 
• South Africa’s competitive edge: As the continent’s most industrialised economy, with the largest concentration of pharmaceutical manufacturers, South Africa is uniquely positioned to serve as the continental hub for production, regulation, and export — we must as a nation rise to the occasion of opportunity meeting necessity. 

South Africa already houses the most advanced pharma infrastructure on the continent —from Aspen, Adcock Ingram, Biovac, Cipla to Medpro and more. 

With targeted policy co-ordination, regional investment and pooled procurement mechanisms — leveraging the benefits of the AfCFTA, South Africa can be the industrial anchor that radiates capacity and expertise across Africa. 

This isn’t nationalism, it’s continental pragmatism. 

We must learn to see and appreciate South Africa’s strengths as a resource for the whole continent. Recent moves in Washington and Geneva are opening fresh doors: 

• Just this week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order mandating that US prescription drug prices be cut by up to 80% by benchmarking them against the lowest prices paid globally. This will push pharmaceutical firms to seek lower-cost manufacturing bases. 
• At the same time, a 90-day agreement has slashed US tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30% and China’s on US goods from 125% to just 10%. As global supply chains recalibrate, companies will hunt for stable, cost-effective production alternatives. 

This means that within this new world order, Africa has the opportunity to hold its own as a key global player: 

• Attract new investment: By promoting the established pharma plants and competitive cost structures, the continent can attract companies looking to offset US price pressures and who want to diversify beyond China. 
• Deepen intra-African linkages: With the many benefits of the AfCFTA’s single market framework, we can leverage that to source raw materials, share technology, and expand regional hubs — positioning Africa as both supplier and market. 
• Leave a key G20 legacy: At the upcoming G20 Summit, this has the potential to be a global-African legacy project, moving away from an aid dynamic, and towards a viable partnership-globalisation model. By having its own manufacturing base, Africa can offer to partner on regional pharmaceutical production, gaining growth from technical assistance, co-investment, and market-access guarantees. 

While the urgent priority for localised pharmaceutical manufacturing is access to basic health care, so that our continent could withstand any next global pandemic, or the current almost silent pandemic of non-communicable diseases spreading across our land, localised pharmaceutical manufacturing is also a catalyst for broader economic transformation.

This will tangibly impact economic growth in four ways: 

• Jobs and inclusion: Across Africa there will be thousands of jobs in R&D, production, logistics, financing, regulation and marketing — especially empowering youth and women. 
• Skills and innovation: A thriving pharma sector drives STEM education, lab development, and regulatory expertise, among other critical areas of skills development. 
• Local SME participation: Local firms can serve as suppliers, transporters, and service providers of all industries, deepening value-chain linkages. 
• Economic resilience: A robust industrial base shields Africa from future shocks while improving its balance of payments, for both continental and global markets. At the core of the AfCFTA are regionalised value chains, which provides for more than just resilience, it provides for economic growth.

The memory of Africa being left behind must fuel our future. 

Africa has the market, the talent, the AfCFTA’s potential for industrial might — and with shifting global dynamics, we now also have a strategic opening to lead. 

But the trick is being able to act swiftly. 

Localised pharmaceutical manufacturing is not a luxury; it is an imperative. For our health, for our economies, and for our sovereignty, Africa must rise, together, and never look back. 

Trade, not aid.

• Dangor is DG of the department of international relations and co-operation; Nicolaou is  chairman of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in South Africa; Madurai is president of the African Prosperity Fund