Africa's second largest trading partner behind China, India will rely on Zlecaf to accelerate its rise on a regional scale. The Indian government is already thinking of boosting its private sector to create supply and value chains between India and the African continent.

New Delhi wants to take more positions across Africa and plans to do so strategically positioning within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is scheduled to be implemented on 1 January 2021. The fifteenth CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on the India-Africa Project Partnership, held virtually from 22 to 24 September, was an opportunity for the Indian government to share, among other things, its vision. "Indian investors can make a profit in Africa by accessing the unified market created by the AfCFTA and creating supply chains between India and Africa," said Piyush Goyal, India's Minister of Trade and Industry. Adding that the two sides could "boost their trade partnership by creating India-Africa value chains" in several sectors including textiles, agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, automotive and digital. Trade target: $100 trillion in 2025 With $54 billion in cumulative investment over the past two decades, India is the fifth largest foreign investor in Africa, according to figures from the African Development Bank (AfDB). His favorite sectors are hydrocarbons as well as mining, textiles and finance. In terms of trade, India is the continent's second largest partner. Trade, which is intensifying, rose to $66.7 billion in 2019-2020, up from $57.7 billion in 2010-2011, according to official Indian data that signals an increase in exports in both directions. By 2025, this trade is expected to reach $100 billion, according to New Delhi's ambition, which sees the AfCFTA as the ideal way to achieve this. Kovind's soft-power to cast a wide net Since last year, India has been preparing the ground. This South Asian country, a historical partner of the countries of southern and eastern Africa because of its large diaspora in this part of the continent, is trying to forge strong ties in French-speaking Africa. This logic includes President Ram Nath Kovind's tour of West Africa in the summer of 2019. He had successively visited Benin, Gambia and Guinea Conakry, after New Delhi had earlier pushed its pawns into Guinea Bissau, Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso. Hundreds of millions of dollars in partnership have resulted. Zlecaf, this vast block that revives appetites? India's third largest trading partner, the African continent mainly exports agricultural products including coconut and cashew nuts, mining products including diamonds and gold, hydrocarbons including oil. In 2014, these products accounted for 82% of African exports to the Indian market. Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, Egypt and Botswana are among the main suppliers. With the AfCFTA, Africa's 54 countries will eventually form the world's largest regional trading space, with a potential of $3.4 billion and 1.3 billion consumers. If the Covid-19 pandemic, which has disrupted supply chains around the world, has imposed a revision of the Agenda of the African Union (AU) – the operationalization of the trade bloc initially planned for July 2020 – the pan-African institution also sees an opportunity to diversify exports, at a time when FDI could become scarce in the medium term. And in the context of the global crisis linked to the coronavirus pandemic, the AfCFTA also represents an opportunity for Africa's partners. Moreover, India — which is also thinking of focusing on the least developed countries — is not the only partner to follow developments on this crucial issue very closely. China, the United States, Japan, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, ... all pay particular attention to it.