📅Tuesday 23 June 2026
⏰10.00 am to 11.30 am (Paris time)
Online
📅Friday 26 June 2026
⏰10.00 am to 11.30 am (Paris time)
Online
🔗Registration required
Africa is now home to more than 200 Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Established as geographically designated areas with preferential tax and regulatory frameworks, these zones are designed to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and stimulate economic activity.
While early SEZ models primarily focused on manufacturing, African countries are increasingly developing integrated zones that combine industrial production, logistics, and services. Their overall performance, however, remains uneven.
Although many SEZs have delivered notable successes, critics often point to their fiscal costs and their tendency to operate as economic enclaves with limited linkages to the broader domestic economy.
For SEZs to become genuine engines of development rather than isolated pockets of growth, their success depends on effective governance, a coherent national industrial strategy, and strong integration with local productive sectors.
Against a backdrop of growing challenges to globalization and renewed efforts to advance regional integration across Africa, this two-part webinar series, jointly organized by Ferdi and AFD, will examine the evolving role of SEZs in the continent’s economic transformation.
Webinar on 23 June 2026 from 10.00 to 11.30 (Paris time)
Webinar on 26 June 2026 from 10.00 to 11.30 (Paris time)
Moderator:
Panellists:
