During a business summit in Egypt, on Saturday, African leaders called for the mobilization of financial resources on the continent, stressing that Africa is capable of “achieving much better results” in financing its growth and reducing its dependence on external financing.
The three-day meeting in the Egyptian city of El Alamein on the Mediterranean brought together more than 20 heads of state and government representatives, as well as business leaders, bankers and development institutions.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said during the opening of the first edition of the “El Alamein Africa Forum” that the private sector in Africa is still the continent’s main economic engine, as it represents more than 70 percent of the gross domestic product.
But he pointed out that African companies are still more connected to markets outside the continent than to neighboring countries.
He said: “It is striking that about 85 percent of African private sector transactions take place with companies from outside the continent,” adding that the forum aims to help African companies identify the opportunities closest to them and build cross-border partnerships.
The Chairman of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssef, said that progress has been made, but Africa still has great untapped potential. He added: “In 2024, intra-African trade will reach $220 billion, representing 14.4 percent of our continent’s trade.”
Trade between African countries grew by 12.4 percent in 2024, after recording a contraction of 5.9 percent in the previous year.
Youssef considered this encouraging, but added that “Africa is capable of achieving much better results.”
The forum is set to become a biennial event mandated by the African Union, focusing on infrastructure, trade, agriculture, healthcare, mining, technology and renewable energy.
After focusing for a long time on the Middle East and the Mediterranean, Egypt is increasingly moving south, seeking to restore its influence on a continent where China and Gulf powers, especially the UAE, have expanded their economic and political presence.
Officials estimate Egyptian investments in Africa at about $14 billion, including the Julius Nyerere hydroelectric project in Tanzania worth $3 billion.
African automotive sector
The forum’s activities witnessed a session entitled “In-depth Policy Analysis: Automotive Industry Policies” within the activities of the “Africa Automotive Sector Investment Forum”, which was held in the city of El Alamein on October 2 and 3, and focused on “Unleashing the potential of the automotive industry in Africa under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).”
The forum - organized by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in coordination with the African Automobile Manufacturers Association and the Egyptian Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade - brought together an elite group of senior policymakers, financial institutions, original equipment manufacturers and industry leaders; This is to discuss ways to attract more investments in the automotive sector, enhance manufacturing capabilities, and build more competitive regional value chains.
Dr. Jihan Saleh, Advisor to the Egyptian Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, confirmed that the question no longer revolves around what Africa wants to achieve, but rather on how to move from the ambition stage to the actual implementation stage.
During her participation in the session, she pointed out that “while African countries are working to develop their industrial policies and automotive sector policies, national strategies cannot work in isolation from each other if the goal is to build a truly integrated African automotive industry.” Therefore, enhancing policy harmonization, unifying regulations and standards, and clearly mapping each country’s capabilities – from raw materials and components to manufacturing, skills, energy, logistics and market access – are essential to linking national strategies into a competitive continental value chain.”
Dr. Jehan’s intervention also highlighted an important principle: no single African country needs to build the entire automotive value chain alone; Africa's opportunity lies in integrating its diverse capabilities and comparative advantages to form a more productive, flexible and competitive regional system within global automotive value chains.
Lynx Economic Consulting and Research, which participates in the automotive industry development program in Egypt, believes that these discussions are gaining special importance in light of the radical transformations that the automobile industry is witnessing on the technological, geopolitical, and supply chain levels.
She added: “The forum’s discussions reflected these challenges, including supplier development and industry localization, the dispersion of regulatory frameworks, the unification of customs procedures and standards, the implementation of automotive sector policies, new energy vehicles, and the development of regional supply and value chains.”
The G7 countries agreed, on Friday evening, to withdraw 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from emergency reserves, in a move welcomed by US President Donald Trump in light of his efforts to calm the sharp rise in fuel prices related to the war with Iran.
The conflict sparked the largest withdrawal of emergency stockpiles in history, coordinated by the International Energy Agency in March.
The G7 said in a joint statement: “Taking into account the commitments that have already been fulfilled, we will implement our commitments through a coordinated withdrawal through the International Energy Agency of 100 million barrels.”
She added that the process will begin immediately and continue for four months, with a large and early withdrawal of diesel within 20 days by the G7 countries and their partners.
The statement did not specify a distribution of the quantities of crude oil, diesel, and other products scheduled to be withdrawn, and did not mention the countries that would participate.
The statement added: “We will meet within the framework of the International Energy Agency in the coming days to discuss the possibility of conducting additional operations to withdraw (from) diesel reserves as necessary.”
Trump wrote in a post on the Truth Social platform after the decision: “Europe has just agreed to withdraw a massive amount of its huge stockpile of diesel fuel. The process will begin immediately.”
The US President seeks to reduce domestic fuel prices before the midterm elections on November 3.
Before leaving for Alabama, he told reporters at the White House that the United States would not impose a ban on diesel exports. He pointed out that this plan was not seriously proposed in the first place, even though he repeatedly stated during the past two weeks that imposing such a ban was under study and that he supported the idea.
Trump added: “Europe has a large stock of diesel, and it will make a major global contribution, and so will we. “We will not impose an export ban, but we will do what we have to do.”
In March, the Iran war led to the largest withdrawal of emergency stocks ever, as countries withdrew 400 million barrels, coordinated by the International Energy Agency.
Reuters quoted three informed sources on Thursday as saying that the Trump administration had previously informed Germany and France of the need to withdraw from emergency diesel stocks, otherwise they would face a possible US ban on its exports.
The G7 statement said that member states will refrain from imposing restrictions on exports of energy products among themselves.
Three sources familiar with the discussions of European Union governments said, according to Reuters, that the governments discussed on Friday a French proposal stipulating that European countries withdraw 50 million barrels of diesel, and that member states of the International Energy Agency withdraw 50 million barrels of crude oil.
