Technology-intensive supply chains and industries: Resetting African markets and businesses for mobility and scale

As stated in chapter 1 of this report, companies are increasingly seeking to diversify their supply chains to reduce their exposure to global shocks and disruptions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine. Such a perspective for supply chain diversification provides opportunities for economies in Africa to position themselves as geographic alternatives. Some industries are more exposed to supply chain shocks than others--this is closely related to their global value chain activity. Figure 19 illustrates that supply chain linkages, measured by imported foreign value added embedded in exports, showing that several areas--computers and electronics, the automotive industry, electrical equipment, machinery and equipment, and chemicals and pharmaceutical products--provide deep supply chain integration.
In countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, refined petroleum products and basic metals depend the most on imported value added. The high trade intensity in these sectors [...]