The expanded BRICS grouping is entering a more consequential phase, with its latest summit in New Delhi placing Africa's economic interests against a rapidly changing global landscape of trade tensions, geopolitical fragmentation, energy insecurity and competition for critical minerals.
The 18th BRICS Summit, hosted by India on 12 and 13 September 2026, comes at a moment when the grouping has grown well beyond its original Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa configuration.
Its expansion has increased BRICS' economic and geopolitical weight, but also introduced greater differences between members. The challenge now is to demonstrate that a larger BRICS can convert its collective influence into practical economic cooperation.
For Africa, that question is particularly important.
South Africa, the continent's BRICS member, has been pushing for the grouping to focus increasingly on investment, infrastructure, industrialisation, energy, technology and trade rather than allowing BRICS to remain primarily a political forum.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has repeatedly argued that the value of BRICS should ultimately be measured by tangible economic outcomes.
At the summit and related business engagements, South Africa placed particular emphasis on infrastructure, critical minerals, energy transition, agriculture, digital technology and human capital.
The message reflects a broader African concern: the continent cannot afford another global commodities boom in which it supplies raw materials while value, technology and manufacturing capacity are created elsewhere.
From minerals to manufacturing
Critical minerals have become one of the most strategically important areas of the global economy.
Africa possesses significant deposits of minerals required for electric vehicles, renewable-energy systems, batteries, electronics and other technologies. Yet much of the continent's mineral wealth continues to leave its borders in relatively unprocessed form.
South Africa wants BRICS cooperation to help change that equation.
Ramaphosa has highlighted opportunities for partnerships between South Africa and India around critical minerals, beneficiation, new-energy vehicles and batteries.
The objective is not simply to attract more mining investment, but to develop industrial capabilities around Africa's resources.
That distinction could determine how valuable BRICS becomes for the continent.
If investment creates processing plants, manufacturing capacity, technology partnerships and skilled employment, BRICS could contribute to Africa's industrialisation.
If it primarily increases the export of unprocessed commodities, the continent's economic position may change far less than the rhetoric suggests.
Infrastructure remains the gateway
Africa's infrastructure deficit is another area where BRICS capital could make a significant difference.
Transport corridors, ports, electricity networks, water systems and digital infrastructure remain critical to the continent's ability to trade effectively and integrate its economies.
South Africa has positioned its own infrastructure pipeline as an opportunity for international investors. The country has identified strategic integrated projects spanning transport, energy, water and digital infrastructure, with investment requirements running into tens of billions of dollars.
The potential impact goes beyond South Africa.
Improved infrastructure in the continent's largest economies can strengthen regional supply chains and support the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
For BRICS, this creates an opportunity to connect its investment ambitions with Africa's long-term integration agenda.
The New Development Bank
One of the most important instruments available to BRICS is the New Development Bank.
The institution was established to mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable-development projects in emerging markets and developing countries.
For Africa, its importance lies in the possibility of providing another source of long-term development finance at a time when many governments face constrained fiscal space and high borrowing costs.
The opportunity is substantial, but financing alone will not be enough.
African countries need to develop a stronger pipeline of commercially viable projects capable of attracting both public and private capital.
Energy generation, transmission infrastructure, logistics, water, urban development and digital connectivity are areas where BRICS-related financing could have a direct economic impact.
Energy at the centre of the transition
Energy is emerging as one of the most important intersections between Africa's development needs and BRICS' economic interests.
The continent has enormous renewable-energy potential alongside significant oil and gas reserves, yet energy access remains one of its most persistent development challenges.
At the same time, the global transition towards electric vehicles, batteries and renewable power is driving demand for critical minerals.
This creates an unusual opportunity.
Africa can potentially participate in both the energy supply system and the industrial value chains emerging around the energy transition.
South Africa has identified renewable energy, green hydrogen, critical minerals and related technologies as areas with potential for deeper cooperation with India and other BRICS partners.
The challenge will be ensuring that African countries capture more of the value created by these industries.
Digital technology opens another front
The BRICS economic agenda is also expanding into the digital economy.
India's technology capabilities and South Africa's financial-services and fintech ecosystems create potential areas for cooperation in digital payments, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digital trade and skills development.
For Africa, this is particularly relevant.
The continent has demonstrated its ability to leapfrog traditional infrastructure through mobile money, fintech and digital platforms.
The next phase could involve moving from consumer-focused digital services towards more sophisticated digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data services and technology-enabled industrialisation.
BRICS partnerships could provide African companies with access to larger markets, capital and technology — provided local businesses are positioned to participate rather than simply become consumers of imported technology.
A changing global governance system
Behind the economic agenda sits a larger political ambition.
BRICS members have consistently called for reforms to international institutions to give emerging and developing economies greater representation.
South Africa has made African representation a central part of its foreign-policy agenda, including calls for reform of the United Nations Security Council.
At the New Delhi summit, BRICS leaders again emphasised the need for a more representative and inclusive international system.
For Africa, this matters because the continent remains significantly underrepresented in many of the institutions that shape global finance, trade and security.
BRICS provides South Africa with a platform from which to advance those arguments alongside major emerging economies.
Unity will be the difficult part
The expansion of BRICS has increased its reach but also exposed its internal complexity.
India and China remain strategic competitors. Russia's relationship with Western powers remains deeply confrontational, while Middle Eastern members have their own competing interests.
Iran and the UAE, for example, occupy very different geopolitical positions.
The fact that the expanded grouping was able to agree on a joint declaration calling for restraint amid escalating Middle East tensions is therefore significant.
But political agreement does not automatically translate into economic integration.
The real test will be whether BRICS can build mechanisms that businesses can actually use — from financing and payments to investment platforms, trade facilitation and supply-chain partnerships.
What does BRICS mean for Africa?
The answer will ultimately be measured in economic outcomes.
Can African countries secure better access to BRICS markets?
Can the bloc finance infrastructure that makes African trade cheaper?
Can African mineral producers move further up the value chain?
Can partnerships create manufacturing capacity and skilled jobs?
Can African technology companies access capital and markets across the expanded BRICS economy?
And can the continent avoid replacing one form of economic dependence with another?
These questions are particularly relevant to countries outside the BRICS membership.
Botswana, for example, does not need to be a BRICS member to be affected by the bloc's growing influence. Its mineral resources, diversification ambitions and potential in renewable energy and digital services could create areas for engagement with BRICS investors and markets.
The same applies to other African economies seeking capital, technology and new export markets.
From summits to business deals
Perhaps the most important challenge now is moving from diplomacy to implementation.
BRICS has reached a point where its size and economic weight give it significant influence. But influence only becomes meaningful for African economies when it produces investment, factories, infrastructure, technology transfer and jobs.
South Africa's call to move “from contact to contracts” captures the challenge.
The opportunity created by the expanded BRICS is considerable.
But Africa will need to negotiate strategically, build bankable projects, strengthen its institutions and insist on greater local value creation if it is to capture a meaningful share of the opportunities.
For the continent, the BRICS story is therefore not simply about the emergence of another global power bloc.
It is about whether Africa can use a changing global economic order to move from being a supplier of resources to becoming a producer, manufacturer, technology partner and investment destination.
That may ultimately be the most important BRICS story for Africa.
