5 February 2026

The ANC Study Group on Trade, Industry and Competition welcomes the recent signing of South Africa’s accession to the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) establishment agreement.  The signing, which was executed by Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau and witnessed by President Ramaphosa is a long-overdue, strategic breakthrough for industrialisation, export growth, and economic sovereignty.

This decisive and progressive milestone represents the culmination of a strategic intervention that the ANC has advocated for, both in government and in Parliament. The accession to AFREXIMBANK is part of the commitment to building a developmental state, reindustrialisation, advancing inclusive growth, and deepening continental economic integration underpinned by the ANC’s core political principles of solidarity, self-reliance, and shared prosperity.

The AFREXIMBANK is an African multilateral financial institution which was established to (i) facilitate, promote, and increase intra-African as well as Africa’s trade with other countries, (ii) support industrialisation that would advanceeconomic transformation across the continent, and (iii) address market failures in relation to access to developmental and trade finance. These align with South Africa’s priorities of creating inclusive growth and job creation, increasing trade (particularly exports) and investment, and contributing to deepening Africa’s integration through the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

South Africa’s full membership in the AFREXIMBANK provides the country with a sensible, credible, and progressive alternative, capable of being a catalyst for the country and the continent’s economic development. As anAfrican multilateral financial institution, AFREXIMBANKexpands South Africa’s access to development-oriented finance that is critical for growth, and thus, strengthens South Africa’s economic sovereignty, enhances economic policy autonomy, and supports access to development finance,allowing the country to implement measures in line with its priorities of promoting industrialisation, strengthening regional trade and driving inclusive economic growth.

We welcome the US$11 billion financial commitments by the AFREXIMBANK, which comprises a Country Programme for South Africa and funding to the Transformation Fund. The Country Programme, worth US$8 billion, will provide funding to industrial projects, export diversification, infrastructure development and transformation initiatives. This programme represents a decisive intervention to channel long-term finance into strategic sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing, agro-processing, infrastructure, the green economy, and export-oriented industries.

The US$3 billion to the Transformation Fund aims to contribute to inclusive economic participation. It will open up real opportunities for black-owned enterprises, women-owned enterprises, and enterprises owned by persons with disabilities, who continue to face systemic exclusion from credit markets dominated by an oligopolistic financial sector. Through the Transformation Fund, black-owned enterprises get a fair chance to improve their productive capabilities, meaningfully participate in strategic sectors of the economy, including the beneficiation of critical minerals for clean energy technologies, and contribute to job creation, as envisioned in the ANC’s agenda of broad-based economic participation and radical socio-economic transformation.

South Africa’s accession to AFREXIMBANK is therefore not a rhetorical response to a shifting global order. Rather, it is a strategic, political, and developmental response that reflects the ANC’s long-standing vision of an economy that is industrialised, inclusive, export-oriented, and anchored in African solidarity. It affirms the principle that development finance must serve the people (especially the poor and working-class ) and ensure inclusion in the strategic sectors of the economy rather than serving the narrow interests of financial capitalists.

The ANC Study Group supports the efforts of Comrades Parks Tau and Zuko Godlimpi in ensuring an inclusive and growing economy. It will continue to exercise robust parliamentary oversight to ensure that South Africa’s full membership in and partnership with the AFREXIMBANK deliver tangible benefits for South Africans, including job-creating investment and economic growth.

Issued by the Chairperson of the ANC Study Group on Trade, Industry & Competition, Comrade Mzwandile Masina

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