President Cyril Ramaphosa wants Africa to strengthen its economic resilience through enhanced regional integration and cooperation, such as the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu), to navigate what he described as a highly contested and unpredictable global trading system.

Addressing delegates at the nineth Sacu Summit in Cape Town, Ramaphosa highlighted the need to move beyond traditional customs arrangements and build Southern Africa into one of the world's most competitive regional production hubs.

Facing a global economy reshaped by shifting trade patterns and reconfigured supply chains, Ramaphosa stated that no African country could prosper alone.

To counter global uncertainties, tariff disputes, and economic fragmentation, the "Re-Imagined Sacu" framework aims to reduce dependencies and enhance intra-African trade.

To transform the 1910-established bloc into a premier platform for resilience and self-reliance, the strategy seeks to capitalise on the complementary strengths of member States: South Africa with automotive and steel capacity, Botswana with diamond beneficiation experience and cross-border vaccine cooperation.

He said Namibia needed to capitalise on green hydrogen and uranium processing potential, Lesotho with textile manufacturing and Eswatini with a manufacturing base.

Africa currently holds about 30% of the world’s mineral reserves. Ramaphosa urged member States to leverage this demand for critical minerals to support regional value chains, such as developing the battery value chain and auto component manufacturing.

Achieving this required substantial investment in shared infrastructure—including roads, railways, ports, energy grids, and digital networks—to serve an integrated regional economy rather than just individual national ones, he said.

Supported by a planned Regional Development Fund in partnership with the African Development Bank, Sacu aims to fast-track regional industrialisation and economic diversification.