‘Africa not seeking aid, it’s seeking partners’ Ramaphosa says

Ramaphosa said South Africa is making progress in enabling its economy to participate in the rapidly changing global environment.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the African continent is not seeking aid, but rather partners.

Ramaphosa made the remarks during the plenary session two on the economy at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development Summit in Yokohama on Wednesday.

The president arrived in Japan this week to lead South Africa’s high-level delegation participation in the summit.

‘Critical time’

Attendees at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) included Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, William Ruto of Kenya and UN head António Guterres.

Ramaphosa said the gathering comes at a critical time, where global economic uncertainty, the reshaping of trade and new industrial revolutions demand “bold action and strategic collaboration.”

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“Africa must not merely react to these forces. We must help to shape them.”

Changing global environment

Ramaphosa said South Africa is making progress in enabling its economy to participate in the rapidly changing global environment.

“We have stabilised our energy supply and are modernising our infrastructure. We are opening our ports and rail to private sector investment. We are rolling out a reindustrialisation agenda focused on localisation, green energy and regional integration.

 “We are incentivising electric vehicles and battery production, and supporting green hydrogen value chains through infrastructure and skills investment,” Ramaphosa said.

Africa is not seeking aid. It is seeking partners. Partners that understand value co-creation, sustainable development and mutual industrialisation.#TICAD9 pic.twitter.com/wXX0yif9lH

— Cyril Ramaphosa (@CyrilRamaphosa) August 21, 2025

Partnerships

Ramaphosa added that recent tariff actions by the United States on African goods have highlighted the need to diversify export markets.

“South Africa is a leading exporter of agricultural produce and high-quality industrial products such as automobiles and components. We call on our Japanese counterparts to support tariff cooperation to ease market access for African goods,” Ramaphosa said.

“We seek partnerships in infrastructure, energy and digital development through blended finance. We also seek partnerships in financing skills development, youth innovation and small business scaling.

“Africa is not seeking aid. It is seeking partners. Partners that understand value co-creation, sustainable development and mutual industrialisation,” the president said.

China

With the summit, Japan hopes to counter China by offering itself as an alternative as the African continent reels from a debt crisis exacerbated by US aid cuts, conflicts and climate change.

China has invested heavily in Africa over the past decade, with its companies signing deals worth hundreds of billions of Dollars to finance shipping ports, railways, roads and other projects under Beijing’s Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative.

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