A leading Africa-China policy think tank has sounded a clear warning: Africa is gaining visibility in global supply chains but remains locked in low-value roles, and risks being sidelined again even as a historic realignment of global production gathers pace.
Paul Frimpong, Executive Director of the Africa-China Centre for Policy and Advisory (ACCPA), made the case for urgent strategic repositioning at a high-level roundtable convened by the East Asian Institute (EAI) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) on Wednesday, April 8. The forum, held under the theme “Global Supply Chain Shift and Potential New Shipping Routes,” brought together researchers, policy experts, and industry leaders to examine how geopolitical pressures and China’s industrial evolution are reshaping global production systems.
Frimpong told panellists that while Africa’s footprint in global production networks is growing, its contribution remains anchored in commodity exports, basic processing, and assembly work, with little control over higher-value functions such as design, technology development, and supply chain management.
He also drew attention to the structural limits of China’s manufacturing relocation. As China upgrades its domestic industrial base, parts of its production are moving to regions across the Global South, including Africa. However, Frimpong cautioned that this shift is deliberate and selective, with high-value activities largely retained, leaving Africa’s deeper integration into global value chains an open and pressing question.
“Africa is present in global supply chains, but not yet positioned to capture value at scale,” he said.
To address the gap, he outlined three priorities for African policymakers: targeted value chain strategies, stronger alignment between foreign investment and domestic industrial capacity, and accelerated regional integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to develop cross-border production ecosystems.
His central argument was that Africa’s long-term competitiveness will not be won on cost advantages alone, but through the strength of its policy coordination, infrastructure, and institutional frameworks.
ACCPA is a Sino-African research and policy think tank headquartered in Accra, with teams across Africa, China, and the United Kingdom.
