Africa’s Chokepoints Are Emerging as Strategic Assets in a Fragmenting Global Economy

As major powers shift from globalization toward geoeconomic competition, control over critical nodes of trade, energy, and finance is becoming a primary source of influence. Europe’s current debate about leveraging supply-chain dependencies underscores a broader reality: power increasingly resides not in territory alone, but in infrastructure others cannot bypass.

Africa, often portrayed as peripheral to global strategy, in fact hosts several of the world’s most consequential chokepoints. The continent’s challenge is not scarcity of leverage but limited capacity to coordinate and monetize it.

Recent analysis of global value chains emphasizes that control over “critical chokepoints” can shape the behavior of other economies when dependencies are high and alternatives are costly.

Maritime Gateways Linking Three Continents

North and East Africa sit astride the shortest sea route between Europe and Asia. The Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait together form a continuous corridor through which a significant share of global trade, energy shipments, and container traffic flows.

When disruptions occur, shipping must divert around the Cape of Good Hope, adding weeks to transit times and sharply increasing costs. The rerouting seen during recent Red Sea insecurity demonstrated how events in a narrow maritime zone can ripple across global supply chains and inflation metrics.

For Egypt and states bordering the Red Sea, these waterways represent both revenue streams and geopolitical leverage. For the global economy, they are points of systemic vulnerability.

Ports as Regional Economic Anchors

Africa’s major ports function as gateways for entire subregions rather than individual national economies.

Durban serves Southern Africa’s industrial base. Mombasa and Dar es Salaam connect landlocked East African states to international markets. Lagos anchors West Africa’s import-dependent economies.

Because inland transport networks remain uneven, cargo concentration at these ports is high. Congestion, labor disruptions, or infrastructure failures can propagate inland through higher logistics costs and supply shortages.

Competition among ports is therefore not only commercial but strategic. Transit trade generates stable foreign exchange earnings and can catalyze manufacturing clusters, logistics services, and urban growth.

Mineral Corridors and the Energy Transition

Africa’s resource endowment is increasingly central to global industrial policy. The Democratic Republic of Congo dominates cobalt production, while other countries supply copper, lithium, manganese, and platinum group metals essential for batteries and clean technologies.

These resources move through narrow transport corridors from inland mines to coastal export terminals. Bottlenecks along railways, highways, or border crossings can constrain supply even when reserves are abundant.

As global demand for transition minerals rises, infrastructure linking mines to ports becomes as strategically significant as the resources themselves.

Energy Infrastructure and Long-Term Dependence

Pipelines, LNG terminals, and power interconnectors create durable relationships between producers and consumers because they are capital-intensive and difficult to reroute.

North African gas pipelines supply European markets, while new oil export routes in East Africa aim to connect inland production to global buyers. Such infrastructure can generate decades of revenue but also exposes economies to security risks and external pressure.

Energy chokepoints often become focal points of geopolitical competition precisely because disruption carries immediate economic consequences.

The Underappreciated Digital Dimension

Beyond physical infrastructure, Africa’s integration into global networks depends heavily on external digital systems. International payment platforms, cloud computing services, satellite networks, and undersea cables form invisible chokepoints that shape economic sovereignty.

Dependence on foreign-controlled financial and technological infrastructure limits policy autonomy even when physical resources are domestically controlled. As digital trade expands, these intangible nodes may become as consequential as ports or pipelines.

External Investment and Strategic Control

Africa’s infrastructure build-out has been heavily financed by external partners, including bilateral lenders and multinational institutions. While such investment accelerates development, it also raises questions about operational control, debt sustainability, and long-term strategic alignment.

Ownership structures, concession agreements, and regulatory frameworks determine whether infrastructure primarily serves national development goals or external supply chains.

The issue is not foreign participation per se but whether African states retain sufficient agency over assets that underpin economic security.

From Transit Space to Strategic Actor

Africa’s geographic position between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, Europe and Asia, gives it enduring structural importance. Unlike commodities, location cannot be depleted or substituted.

However, geography translates into power only when supported by efficient infrastructure, institutional capacity, and regional coordination. Fragmented policies can turn chokepoints into vulnerabilities rather than assets.

As global supply chains become more politicized, countries that manage critical nodes effectively can shape trade flows, attract investment, and influence pricing dynamics.

Implications for African Policymakers

The emerging global environment favors states that can guarantee reliable access to infrastructure while retaining strategic flexibility. For Africa, this implies prioritizing:

• Modernization of ports and transport corridors
• Security of maritime and energy routes
• Regulatory stability to attract long-term capital
• Regional coordination to avoid destructive competition
• Development of domestic value chains alongside transit services

Without such measures, the continent risks remaining a passage for global commerce rather than a principal beneficiary.

Strategic Outlook

Europe’s debate about deploying geoeconomic leverage reflects a broader transition toward a world in which interdependence is increasingly managed rather than assumed. Africa’s chokepoints place it at the centre of this transition, even if policy frameworks have not yet caught up with structural realities.

If managed strategically, these gateways could underpin industrialisation, fiscal stability, and geopolitical relevance. If not, they may simply facilitate the extraction of value by external actors.

Bottom Line

Africa does not lack leverage in the emerging global order. It hosts critical trade routes, energy, resources, and data flows that connect major economic centers.

The decisive variable is control.

Who operates the infrastructure?

Who secures the corridors?

Who captures the rents?

Who sets the rules?

In a world increasingly defined by geoeconomics, chokepoints are not peripheral features. They are the architecture of power.