Tunisia Ranks Fourth Among Africa's Top Manufacturing Countries
Tunisia has secured a spot in the top five of Africa's leading manufacturing countries, ranking fourth in the Industrialization Index in Africa (IIA), according to the second edition of the report published by the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Monday, May 25, 2026, at the annual meetings in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.
According to the report, Morocco takes the top spot, followed by Egypt in third place, Tunisia in fourth, and Mauritius in fifth. South Africa, the only sub-Saharan country, ranks second, outperforming North African countries, the report highlights.
The IIA 2025 report reveals that 41 out of 54 African countries have improved their industrialization scores, with 26 countries performing above the continent's average. Most North African countries are among the top performers, with scores above the African average, except for Libya and Mauritania.
However, West Africa, Central Africa, and East Africa still lag behind North Africa and Southern Africa, where the continent's main industrial hubs are located, including South Africa, Egypt, and the Maghreb countries.
The report emphasizes that industrialization remains the most promising path for Africa to achieve its structural transformation, create large-scale productive employment, diversify exports, strengthen economic resilience, and ensure long-term prosperity.
In a rapidly evolving global economy marked by geopolitical realignments, technological disruptions, climate transition, and supply chain restructuring, Africa's need to industrialize has never been more urgent, the report stresses.
Despite growing interest from policymakers and a renewed focus on continental industrial policy, Africa's industrial transformation remains incomplete, the report notes.
While the value added by the manufacturing industry has increased steadily in absolute terms, from $285 billion in 2020 to $351 billion in 2025, the continent still accounts for less than 2% of global manufacturing output and only 1.4% of global manufactured exports.
The manufacturing industry's value added per capita in Africa remains below pre-2014 levels, indicating that industrial growth has not yet translated into a generalized structural transformation, the report concludes.
The challenge of industrializing Africa is no longer about designing strategies but implementing them effectively at scale. The continent has the demographic, geographical, institutional, and resource foundations necessary for industrialization.
However, realizing its potential will depend on better policy coordination, more effective institutions, closer regional cooperation, and sustained long-term investments.
The report recommends promoting the transition from isolated production initiatives to integrated industrial ecosystems anchored in regional value chains, strategic industrial platforms, production infrastructure, and innovation-based competitiveness.
This transition requires stronger policy coordination, deeper regional integration, increased private sector participation, and significantly greater investments in productive sectors, the report concludes.
The Industrialization Index in Africa (IIA) was first published in November 2022 to track industrialization trends across the continent. The second edition of the IIA 2025 report provides an exhaustive evaluation of industrial development in the 54 African countries over the period 2010-2024.
