A whole continent sells its raw materials but produces less than 1% of the world's manufactured goods

African cities are becoming congested with traffic, but when will their roads be blocked by African-built cars? In Ethiopia they are trying, with a range of models named after Ethiopian rivers. The Holland Car brand is the result of a project headed by Tadesse Tessema, who started as an import-export dealer before trying his hand at car manufacture.

Holland Car is backed by a Dutch investor and the cars are designed in China, which supplies the parts. At present the company is producing six cars a day, but aims to increase output and move closer to a product designed and made in Africa.

There are several other factories on the continent assembling parts produced elsewhere. For years Peugeot produced indestructible 504s at seven different works, including Kaduna in Nigeria, which made tens of thousands of cars in the 1980s. But there have been few attempts to manufacture cars from start to finish.

Just before the Arab spring took a violent turn in Libya, Muammar Gaddafi launched a car called the Saroukh el-Jamahiriya (Libyan Rocket), but despite its aggressive Italian design, it never reached production.

Outside of South Africa, the only vehicle wholly designed and developed on the continent was made in Kenya. Former president Daniel Arap Moi commissioned the Nyayo in 1986. Four years after an unsuccessful putsch, the all-Kenyan car joined other projects meant to give substance to the president's ideology.

The Nyayo concept was applied to many sectors of the economy controlled by the regime, through semi-public companies that contributed to tight control of the country. Many operated under a protectionist umbrella and Kenya became accustomed to locally sourced consumption.

It is said Moi asked the engineering department at Nairobi University to design a car, "however ugly or slow", suggesting that high performance was not an essential factor. The Kenya Railways central workshops and military bases were involved in manufacturing parts for the Nyayo prototypes, which topped 120km/h in tests on the Mombasa Road.

The Nyayo was not very smart, but its appearance had nothing to do with its failure. It just became a regular source of embezzled funds for cronies close to the regime, with not a single vehicle sold. Kenyan car workers carried on assembling Land Rovers, Mitsubishis and Peugeots.

Despite rising growth over the past decade, governments all over Africa have failed to frame industrial policies capable of boosting home-grown industry. The lack of such projects is a handicap for the future, according to a recent report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development and the UN Industrial Development Organisation.

In the few factories it possesses, Africa currently produces less than 1% of the world's manufactured goods. The economies of many African countries benefit from the exploitation of natural resources and foreign direct investment, but it is up to governments to set up or restore industry that promises prosperity, independence and an end to the unemployment that dogs the continent.

The Ghanaian economist Kingsley Y Amoako served as executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, and set up the African Centre for Economic Transformation to advise governments. In a piece in African Business magazine he emphasised the urgent need for national policies to follow up the infrastructure programme launched by the African Development Bank.

Apart from South Africa and Mauritius, no country in sub-Saharan Africa has an industrial sector that can compete on the world stage, and he thinks each country must define its "own vision" using policies to encourage the development of industry and services.