How industrial zones, ports and the cities around them build an export base in Africa, from Tanger Med and Kenitra in Morocco to Sokhna in Egypt, Nkok in Gabon, Glo-Djigbé in Benin and Diamniadio in Senegal.
Also available in French: Villes industrielles et exportations: Le port, c’est le moins cher. Choose the language when you request the report.
The report in six numbers
investment in Tanger Med's industrial platform for each dollar in its port complex, on the group's own split to 2024 (US$6.39bn against US$1.9bn), which does not allocate US$5.25bn of public money
vehicles handled at Tanger Med in 2025, a year in which its container traffic rose 8.4% to a record 11.1m TEU
investment attracted by SCZone's Sokhna zone in Egypt, the largest investment total in the benchmark, with more than 133,000 direct jobs across 547 projects
jobs lost in Ethiopia's industrial parks after its eligibility for US trade preferences ended on 1 January 2022
homes delivered by October 2025 at Chrafate, a new town planned for 30,000, while Tangier grew 3.0% a year from 2014 to 2024
exports per worker in Kenya's export processing zones, Gabon's Nkok zone and Kigali's special economic zone (Heirstone analysis)
In brief
We compiled public data on 31 export and industrial zones in 14 African countries, from Tanger Med and Kenitra in Morocco and SCZone in Egypt to Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Gabon, Benin, Senegal, Nigeria and South Africa. The zones that export at scale combine an anchor exporter, a gateway within a short truck run and an existing city that absorbed the workforce. Trade preferences and raw-material bans can create a zone quickly and can empty one as fast.
Tanger Med Group puts US$6.39bn of cumulative investment in its industrial platform and US$1.9bn in the port complex, though its sheet does not allocate US$5.25bn of public money. At Nador West Med the port is MAD 13.7bn of a MAD 51bn programme, and SCZone's chairman puts port contracts since July 2022 at about US$1.5bn against roughly US$16bn of investment attracted.
In 2025 Tanger Med's container traffic rose 8.4% to 11.1m TEU while vehicles handled fell 12% and Stellantis exports through the port fell 26%. SCZone's chairman cites 5.6m TEU at East Port Said in 2026, beside an early-stage zone of about 2,000 jobs.
Achieved density runs from about 2 jobs per hectare at Coega to 42-73 at Kenitra and 269 at Hawassa's peak. Inside SCZone, Sokhna has drawn US$33.1bn and more than 133,000 direct jobs, about 4 per US$1m, and Qantara West about 48.
On our calculation exports per worker converge at US$10-15k in Kenya's EPZs, Nkok and Kigali SEZ. For a zone that performs like these, each US$100m of export target implies 6,700 to 10,000 jobs and, at Tanger Med Zones' 48 jobs per hectare, 140 to 210 ha of zone.
After Ethiopia lost US trade preferences on 1 January 2022, 18 firms left its parks and more than 11,400 jobs went; exports reached US$115m in FY2023/24 against a US$250m target. Gabon's 2010 ban on raw-log exports built Nkok into a 1,126 ha zone exporting about US$265m a year.
Chrafate, the new town planned for the Tanger Med workforce, had delivered about 420 of 30,000 homes by October 2025, while the commune of Tangier added some 327,000 residents in a decade. Diamniadio counted 47,759 residents in 2023 against about 300,000 expected.
What it means
Publish customs exports, direct jobs and developed hectares by zone, and judge zones on jobs and exports per hectare.
Sell serviced supplier land and fund commuter links into the existing city before building a new town.
Price the policy behind the export case, whether a foreign preference or a domestic ban, as the first risk in the model.
Plan for the workforce in the nearest existing city first, and size homes, schools and transport from the export target: each US$100m implies 6,700 to 10,000 workers.
Inside the full report
Heirstone datasets
zones and zone programmes in 14 countries in the Heirstone Export City Benchmark, from Tangier to the Eastern Cape
questions in the Heirstone Export City Test, applied to thirteen places from Tangier and Sokhna to Coega and Nador West Med
kinds of export city in the Heirstone typology: metro platforms, preference enclaves, feedstock zones and platforms in waiting
Built from public sources current at October 2026. Every figure is referenced in the report, and figures we derive by combining published numbers are labelled Heirstone analysis.
Tanger Med Group puts cumulative investment in the complex at US$13.56bn to 2024, with US$6.39bn listed for the industrial platform and US$1.9bn for the port complex: 3.4 dollars in the zones for every dollar at the quay. The sheet does not say how the US$5.25bn of public money divides.
It varies more than a hundredfold: from about 2 jobs per gross hectare at Coega in South Africa to 48 at Tanger Med Zones, 42 to 73 at Kenitra's Atlantic Free Zone and 269 at Hawassa's peak in Ethiopia. Supplier parks and garment sheds pack in the most jobs, large land banks the fewest.
After Ethiopia's eligibility for US trade preferences ended on 1 January 2022, 18 foreign firms left its parks and more than 11,400 workers lost their jobs. Park exports reached US$115m in FY2023/24 against a US$250m target, then recovered to US$266.9m in FY2025/26, 2.5% of Ethiopia's exports.
Real Estate Strategy
Heirstone Consulting Research
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