Localising digital manufacturing in Sub-Saharan Africa: challenges and strategic pathways for industrial competitiveness

Abstract

Globally, manufacturers are under increasing pressure to line up their products and processes with the evolving market demand. This underscores the importance of embracing nascent manufacturing technologies, with digitalisation being a critical enabler for productivity and competitiveness. However, many low-income countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region are lagging behind; limiting them from enhancing their productivity and competitiveness. This paper is therefore organized to examine manufacturing digitalisation localising pathways supported with implementation digitalisation index. A thematic survey-based SWOT analysis and TOWS matrix, identifying transformative areas of action, and synthesising various digitalisation variables have substantiated the evolved digitalisation index. It also offers key challenges that need attention during the localisation while defining strategies and policy approaches including perceiving knowledge towards digital transformation, describing benefits from digital success stories, focusing on localised innovation ecosystem, and enriching the process of digital transformation through capacity building. The study then synthesised findings, solely sourced from secondary data, to verify the long-term resilience and benefits of localising the manufacturing digitalisation. The cutting-edge implication of the study in the cased region is finally shown in fostering cross-organisational synergy of the manufacturing industry through boosted productivity, enhanced competitiveness, enriched value addition, and through focused sustainability ecosystem.