The UAE and South Africa are accelerating their strategic trade and investment partnership in 2025, building on a relationship that has rapidly expanded over the past five years. Non-oil trade between the two nations reached $8.5 billion in 2024, marking a 14% increase from 2023 and more than double the volume recorded in 2019. South Africa now stands as the UAE’s second-largest African trading partner, accounting for 7.6% of the UAE’s total non-oil trade with the continent. Momentum continued into 2025, with bilateral non-oil trade hitting $3.93 billion in the first half alone, driven by multi-sector cooperation and deepening private-sector engagement.
The UAE’s long-term vision to strengthen economic connectivity across Africa is taking shape through strategic alliances, high-level government collaboration, and Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPAs). South Africa, with its diversified industrial base and continental influence, plays a central role in this strategy. The partnership spans logistics, renewable energy, agriculture, real estate, food production, manufacturing, and infrastructure—creating a diversified platform for cross-border growth.
Recent high-level meetings between UAE and South African trade ministers emphasized the need for stronger private-sector engagement, particularly in co-investment platforms, supply chain collaboration, and innovation-led industries. With both countries pushing forward economic diversification agendas, the private sector is becoming a crucial engine of bilateral growth.
This partnership supports the UAE’s broader geopolitical and economic strategy to position itself as a gateway to African markets. Through CEPAs and targeted investment vehicles, the UAE is building long-term commercial corridors across the continent, anchored by mutually beneficial trade frameworks and sustainable development commitments.
The UAE–South Africa partnership reflects a strategic alignment built on resilience, diversification, and shared economic ambition. With trade volumes surging, investment flows strengthening, and major joint projects underway, both nations are building a long-term growth corridor that will reshape commercial opportunities across the Middle East and Africa. For businesses and private capital, this is a pivotal moment to position for cross-border expansion and participation in one of 2025’s most dynamic bilateral relationships.
