This strategic brief is part of NatureFinance’s Unlocking Africa’s Bioeconomy series, which explores how African countries and regions can move beyond resource extraction toward value addition that strengthens economic resilience, supports nature-positive growth and attracts investment.
Africa’s bioeconomy already exists, embedded in the agriculture and natural capital that sustain livelihoods and trade across the continent. The task ahead is not to build it from scratch, but to shape how value is captured across the value chains that already run through it. The opportunity is significant. The global bioeconomy generates an estimated US$4-5 trillion a year and is projected to reach US$30 trillion by 2050. Africa is well positioned to capture a meaningful share of this growth, with 60% of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land and over 65% of its workforce engaged in agriculture.
This brief synthesises insights from a high-level convening held in Nairobi in May 2026, hosted by NatureFinance and the Stockholm Environment Institute – Africa Office, which brought together stakeholders across bioeconomy strategy, agricultural value chains, finance and investment, research and innovation systems and implementation actors spanning delivery and development partners and practitioners working across the value chain. It sets out priority actions to inform program and initiative design, guide investment and financing decisions, and shape partnerships, supporting a shift from fragmented efforts toward integrated, value chain–driven approaches that can scale.
Where the opportunity lies: the strategic signals
Six signals, six opportunities for action
- Building investable pipelines for scale. Strengthening and aggregating investable pipelines can unlock scale, bridging the gap between ambition and bankability across agricultural value chains.
- Repositioning agriculture as an industrial entry point. Agriculture is still viewed primarily through a livelihoods lens, rather than as a platform for value creation and industrialisation. Repositioned as a gateway into value chains, industry and higher-value trade, it can become a platform for industrialisation, driving jobs, enterprise and regional trade.
- Aligning finance with agricultural value chain transformation. Designing financing around value chains, rather than institutional silos, can unlock agricultural-to-industrial pathways, including through blended finance models that support production, processing and market expansion.
- Placing SMEs and smallholders at the centre. They underpin production and drive early-stage innovation. Targeted investment in these actors is a key lever for strengthening the bioeconomy’s foundations.
- Strengthening knowledge translation systems. With strong research capacity, data systems and innovation ecosystems already built and growing, stronger research-industry links can translate that knowledge into market-ready enterprises and improved productivity.
- Improving and strengthening coordination for scale. A more coordinated system unlocks greater impact and investment, scaling value chains and building competitive bio-based industries.
Why this matters
Production across the continent remains concentrated in raw or minimally processed goods, while the higher value stages that generate the bulk of economic value happen elsewhere. Africa creates biological value but retains only a fraction of the economic value generated.
Unlocking the economic potential of Africa’s bioeconomy requires a coordinated shift, moving agriculture from a productivity sector into a core industrial and economic engine. This means strengthening value chains that link production to processing, manufacturing and markets, while addressing the systemic constraints across finance, policy, coordination and knowledge systems.
Contact
Content enquiries: Indekhwa Anangwe, Manager, Impact & Trade, NatureFinance, indekhwa.anangwe@naturefinance.net
Media and communications: nfcommunications@naturefinance.net
