Senior African government officials began a six week automotive policy course in Accra this month, the second edition of a programme backed by Afreximbank’s 1 billion dollar industry financing commitment.
The African Association of Automotive Manufacturers, the AfCFTA Secretariat and Afreximbank jointly run the course, called “Driving AfCFTA Execution to Develop Africa’s Automotive Value Chain Potential,” with academic support from the Toyota Wessels Institute for Manufacturing Studies and Germany’s GIZ. It runs from June 15 to August 7 and follows an inaugural edition held in South Africa in 2025.
The programme has three stages. A six week online assignment follows the opening week in Accra, with officials working in teams to draft AfCFTA aligned automotive policy frameworks, before a final Learning Consolidation and Best Practice Study Week in Durban from August 3 to 7 that includes visits to automakers, component suppliers and technology centres.
Dr Gainmore Zanamwe, Afreximbank’s Director of Trade Facilitation and Investment Promotion, said “Afreximbank envisions Africa’s future with a thriving automotive industry driving economic growth and industrialisation.”
Afreximbank has committed 1 billion US dollars to financing Africa’s automotive industry, part of its push to deepen local manufacturing and intra African trade under the continental free trade agreement.
Much of the policy work the course is meant to support centres on the automotive Rules of Origin under AfCFTA, which set a 40 percent African originating content threshold that vehicles must meet to qualify for preferential tariffs under the agreement. The African Association of Automotive Manufacturers has listed finalising that threshold among its priorities for the year.
Organisers have pointed to rising vehicle demand as part of the case for industrial coordination, though estimates of how fast the market is growing vary by country and report. South Africa’s new vehicle market, the continent’s largest, grew nearly 16 percent in 2025 to its highest sales total in more than a decade, while market researchers put the broader African automotive market at roughly 22 billion dollars in 2026, expanding at about 5 percent a year.
The inaugural 2025 edition drew backing from automakers including Volkswagen Group Africa, Isuzu Motors South Africa and Toyota South Africa Motors; organisers have not yet listed corporate backers for the 2026 course.
