Bilateral trade between Africa and India was valued at US$100 billion in the 2024/2025 financial year.
This is nearly twice the amount it was from 2019 to 2020.
James Vos, the Mayoral Committee Member (MMC) for Economic Growth in Cape Town, confirmed at the city’s first ever India-Africa Entrepreneurship and Investment Summit, held last week.
The event brought together investors, entrepreneurs and business leaders to strengthen trade and investment opportunities between India and Africa.
The City also reaffirmed its commitment to attracting more investment, growing tourism and pursuing a direct flight between Cape Town and India to unlock even greater economic opportunities.
Vos said “I’m particularly keen to see Cape Town play a feature role in hitting these milestones. Already, it appears that this is happening as shown by year-on-year growth of Indian exports to the Western Cape, which is up a massive 72% in 2025.”
He also said India was the Western Cape’s second-biggest import source market last year, accounting for 8,4% of the share of imports to the province.
“It is similarly worth noting that the province’s exports to India grew at an impressive average annual growth rate of 46,37% from 2020 to 2024” he said.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) from Indian companies also increased between 2015 and 2024, supported by 11 FDI projects from India, amounting to a total capex value of US$87,30 million (roughly R1,4 billion).
About 88% of these were in the tech services and call centre/BPO sectors.
Picture: Supplied