Industrial parks are sold as value-chain infrastructure, but a fenced plot with power and a road is only real estate until firms cluster and a supply chain forms inside it.
Section
Economics
The Value-Add Republic: Kufunga Magazine | Vol 06 Issue 01 | June 2026
Our June 2026 issue is out. How Zimbabwe is rewriting the oldest rule of its economy - from a country that sells the rock to one that keeps the value - and what that turn asks of everyone doing business here. Zimbabwe is testing a sentence most resource economies only...
Trade fairs as pipelines: turning expo handshakes into SME orders
A four-day expo can announce billions in deals. The harder question is how many of those handshakes survive contact with shipping schedules, payment terms and a small firm’s first export.
Made in Africa, sold to China: why zero tariffs are only the doorway
China has thrown the door open to African goods. Walking through it with finished products, rather than raw ore, is the harder task that no tariff schedule can do for the continent.
Tax Mix Rebalanced: VAT Rises to 15.5% as IMTT on ZiG Falls to 1.5% in Zimbabwe’s 2026 Budget
Zimbabwe’s 2026 budget raises VAT to 15.5% and cuts the IMTT on ZiG to 1.5% while USD stays at 2%, nudging transactions toward the local currency.
China’s vanishing factory jobs: Africa’s chance, if it can catch them
The World Bank has floated 85 million manufacturing jobs leaving China as wages rise. Whether Africa captures a meaningful share is a question of readiness, not destiny.
Diamniadio: Senegal’s bet that a Chinese garment line can build an industry
Senegal spent about US$44m on a park outside Dakar and pinned 23,000 jobs on it. The first anchor tenant is a Chinese factory sewing T-shirts for the American market.
Huajian in Ethiopia: A Shoemaker as the Test Case for Industrial Linkage
A Chinese shoe firm exporting Ethiopian-made footwear to the US and Europe is the model linkage story – and the clearest evidence of how hard local sourcing actually is.
Private Chinese Parks: Ethiopia’s Export Bet, Built Largely by Outsiders
Ethiopia’s drive to become Africa’s top manufacturer leans on private, often Chinese-owned zones. They have delivered factories and exports – and a dependence on foreign developers to build them.