New Delhi, July 29 (IANS) Trade between India and Africa rose from $7 billion in 2001 to more than $98 billion in 2023, while cumulative Indian investment on the continent now exceeds $75 billion, concentrated in telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure and agriculture, according to figures compiled by the India Africa Entrepreneurship Forum (IAEF).
The City of Cape Town, for its part, put forward a more recent figure. According to James Vos, the city’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, trade between Africa and India exceeded $100 billion during the 2024-2025 financial year, compared with $56 billion in 2019-2020. He said this growth should be “the first of greater advances,” according to a report by Africa News Agency (ANA).
The ANA report states that the sixth ‘India-Africa Entrepreneurship & Investment Summit’ which brought together delegates from 26 countries in Cape Town from July 13-15, 2026, saw plenary sessions, targeted business meetings. Working groups focused on regional investment, digital skills, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, green industrialisation, climate-smart agriculture, the rise of fintech ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as trade integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
According to the IAEF, India and Africa together represent a combined economic potential close to $7 trillion, with growing opportunities in healthcare, artificial intelligence, fintech, climate technologies, manufacturing, logistics and digital infrastructure.
The summit was also marked by the publication by the IAEF of a ranking of the 100 Indian-origin entrepreneurs considered the most influential on the continent, from countries including Kenya, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, Madagascar and Mauritius, among them Chetan Chug, chairman of the Winmart and SOMIKA Group in the DRC.
The initiative highlights Africa’s Indian diaspora, estimated at around three million people according to the IAEF, and presented as a historic driver of exchanges between the two regions.
This private-sector-led meeting in Cape Town took place nearly six weeks after the fourth India-Africa Forum Summit, an intergovernmental meeting held in New Delhi from May 28 to 31, 2026. According to Indian officials cited during the event, India’s cumulative investment in Africa is estimated at around $80 billion over the 1996-2025 period, complemented by more than 190 lines of credit worth over $10 billion benefiting 41 African countries, in the areas of drinking water, agriculture, transport, energy and digital connectivity.
The gap between this government figure and the higher figure put forward by the IAEF for private investment alone illustrates the difficulty of accurately measuring a partnership that combines public financing, concessional lines of credit and private investment accumulated over several decades.
–IANS
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