By Vanessa Naicker, Vice President: Social Impact, Anglo American South Africa
When I reflect on the work of the B20 Industrial Transformation and Innovation Task Force this year, one point stands out with clarity and urgency: Africa cannot remain at the margins of global industrialisation. The continent must become central to how the world reimagines growth, sustainability, and inclusion – especially in an era defined by just transitions, climate action, digital disruption, technological advances, AI and geopolitical realignment.
My perspective is shaped by nearly three decades of working across engineering, mining operations, people and social systems. Today, I lead Anglo American’s social impact portfolio, with a focus on education and skills, local government support in host municipalities and critical minerals. This vantage point, bridging technical expertise with national economic and community outcomes, reinforces a critical requirement for developing nations, viz. industrial transformation of developing nations must deliver tangible benefits not only for economies, but for its people. For South Africa and the African continent, this is not a theoretical ambition but an urgent development imperative for this decade.
The global conversation on industrial transformation links to metals and minerals, and now more so on critical minerals. Africa’s resource base is vast and strategically vital, but minerals alone will not deliver transformation. The real opportunity lies in how we translate those resources into industrial ecosystems that generate skills, jobs, and long-term competitiveness. For too long, Africa has been viewed primarily as a supplier of raw materials. That model has delivered limited benefit to our people. The future must be different – and requires deliberate design with inclusive growth at its heart.
South Africa, for example, has deep mining capabilities, advanced infrastructure, and a sophisticated financial sector. Yet its industrial base remains constrained by energy insecurity, skills mismatches, and fragmented value chains. Across the continent, similar patterns persist. Africa holds some of the richest renewable energy resources in the world, fertile land that can underpin food security, and fast-growing consumer markets that promise sustained demand. Yet despite accounting for nearly 20% of the global population, Africa contributes only around 3% of global exports. This is not a reflection of limited potential, but more of a need for bold and coordinated interventions in country, regionally and across the continent.
One of the most significant levers is the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). By simplifying customs, digitising trade processes, liberalising services, and strengthening regional value chains, AfCFTA has the capacity to increase intra-African trade by more than 50%. This would represent a decisive structural shift, creating scale, attracting investment, and embedding Africa in global supply chains as a central player.
However, frameworks and trade agreements alone will not unlock transformation. Africa’s greatest resource is its people. With the world’s fastest-growing youth population, the continent has a demographic advantage that could shape its future trajectory. Realising this potential requires urgent investment in education and skills. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems must be revitalised and strengthened to serve as engines of industrial capability. We need industry and other stakeholders to work together on strengthening higher education, including TVET, systems, ensuring alignment and supporting education institutions to keep abreast and respond to real world requirements, produce credible graduates, who can thrive as entrepreneurs, workers and innovators acrossindustrial value chains.
Industrial transformation cannot be sustained without capable, integrated systems, across planning, infrastructure, skills, and service delivery. This includes strengthening the institutional capacity of municipalities, regional development agencies, and public-private partnerships. Anglo American’s Municipal Capability and Partnership Programme (MCPP) is one example of how this can be done. Through MCPP, we work directly with local municipalities to improve planning, financial management, and service delivery. We co-design solutions, build institutional resilience, and help unlock catalytic investments that benefit local communities. This is not corporate philanthropy, it is strategic systems support to ensure near and long term sustained benefit for local communities from industrial transformation.
The test of the B20’s work is not in the policy recommendation reports produced but in turning those recommendations into action plans and sustained outcomes. Success will be defined by reformed TVET systems, stronger regional and trans-continental supply chains, and measurable improvements in how communities benefit from industrialisation. These outcomes are the real indicators of progress.
Mining, when practised responsibly and in collaboration with governments and communities, can provide the foundation for this progress. It offers infrastructure, partnerships, and convening power that extend far beyond the extraction of resources. Done well, it is an enabler of transformation, supporting renewable energy corridors, digital connectivity and local manufacturing hubs.
Africa is not seeking a place on the periphery of global industrial growth;it is ready to lead. South Africa’s hosting of the G20 must help create the conditions for it to do so, championing inclusive innovation, supporting stronger regional integration of supply chains, investing in strengthening strategic systems, and ensuring that industrial transformation is not just a global agenda, but a local reality.