Africa’s growing trade with Asia could create more jobs, industries and local value if investment shifts beyond extraction towards manufacturing, processing and regional value chains continent-wide.
That was the message from Luvuyo Masinda, Chief Executive of Corporate and Investment Banking at Standard Bank Group, during the Institute of International Finance Annual Membership Meeting in Bangkok.
Speaking on a panel examining Asia’s changing trade relationships, capital flows and economic connectivity with other regions, Masinda argued that Africa’s opportunity lies not only in attracting more investment, but in ensuring that investment builds productive capacity on the continent.
“Africa has an opportunity to expand trade with Asia while extending regional and domestic processing capabilities, manufacturing and financial value,” he said.
The argument goes to the heart of one of Africa’s long-standing economic challenges: the continent exports significant quantities of natural resources but often captures relatively little of the value created when those resources are processed, manufactured and sold elsewhere.
According to UN Trade and Development figures cited by Standard Bank, primary goods accounted for 76.7% of Africa’s merchandise exports in 2025.
For Masinda, changing that structure requires African countries to use their collective market size more strategically when negotiating trade and investment relationships.
China remains Africa’s largest Asian trading partner, while India is becoming increasingly important. But the opportunity, he said, extends beyond commodity exports into manufacturing, infrastructure and industrial development.
That creates a shared-value opportunity in which international investment can deliver commercial returns while simultaneously strengthening local industries, creating employment and building skills.
“African countries should negotiate at scale,” Masinda said.
He pointed to the African Continental Free Trade Area as an important mechanism for developing regional value chains.
Instead of expecting every country to build an entire manufacturing ecosystem independently, different stages of production could be located across several African economies.
Such an approach could allow countries to combine their strengths, create larger markets for investors and ensure that more of the economic value generated through trade remains on the continent.
Masinda highlighted Standard Bank’s support for Toyota Tsusho’s R1.1 billion automotive component manufacturing investment in KwaZulu-Natal as an example.
The project is localising production of more than 100 vehicle components that were previously imported while creating more than 200 direct jobs.
It has also enabled skills transfer through engineers from Japan and Thailand.
That combination of investment, localisation, employment and skills development illustrates the wider social and economic value that can be created when international trade moves beyond simply purchasing African raw materials.
The challenge, however, is ensuring that African businesses and governments have access to the finance needed to participate in these opportunities.
Masinda pointed to Africa’s persistent trade finance gap, which the African Development Bank’s most recent trade finance report estimated at between US$74 billion and US$92 billion in 2024.
Closing that gap will require greater mobilisation of private capital alongside stronger cooperation with development finance institutions.
Standard Bank has been increasing its own role in this space, with direct trade volumes scaled to the equivalent of more than US$1.2 billion and a US$500 million Asia-focused sustainability-linked syndicated loan concluded.
But Masinda said the objective should extend beyond financing the movement of goods between Africa and Asia.
“We must move from financing flows of goods across our respective continents to financing productive value chains,” he said.
That distinction is significant.
Financing a shipment enables trade. Financing factories, infrastructure, local suppliers and processing capacity can create an economic ecosystem around that trade.
The latter can generate employment, develop entrepreneurs, strengthen local supply chains and create opportunities for African companies to participate in higher-value areas of the global economy.
It also aligns with the broader principles of shared value and sustainable development, where commercial investment is designed to generate economic returns while strengthening the communities and economies in which businesses operate.
Infrastructure will remain central to that shift.
African economies need reliable logistics, energy, transport, digital connectivity and financial systems if locally manufactured goods are to compete effectively within regional and international supply chains.
At the same time, small and medium-sized businesses need opportunities to become suppliers, service providers and participants in these emerging value chains rather than remaining outside large investment projects.
Africa’s relationship with Asia therefore presents an opportunity to rethink what successful trade growth should look like.
More exports may increase trade volumes, but deeper economic impact comes when those relationships also create factories, suppliers, skills, technology transfer and sustainable employment.
Masinda said the ultimate measure should be whether international investment improves economic opportunity for people.
“While these trade and investment partnerships need to ensure capital moves more efficiently between regions, the real measure of their success will be how well they connect people across those regions to opportunity through meaningful jobs, entrepreneurship, economic inclusion and sustainable livelihoods,” he said.
That places people, rather than trade volumes alone, at the centre of Africa’s economic relationship with Asia.
For the continent, the opportunity is not simply to sell more to fast-growing Asian markets.
It is to use those relationships to build the industries, skills and regional value chains that allow Africa to create and retain more value from what it produces.
