How Policy Shifts Are Reshaping Africa’s Beauty Industry

Introduction

Africa’s beauty and cosmetics market is driven by rising consumer demand, growing middle-class spending, and increasing global interest in African natural ingredients. At the same time, governments across the continent are introducing or strengthening policies to address safety, quality, market fairness, and value-chain development. These shifts are redefining how beauty products are made, marketed, and sourced in Africa. This article explores key policy decisions in recent years and what they mean for businesses and consumers.

1. Regulatory Updates Across the Continent

One of the most high-profile regulatory moves in the African beauty economy in 2025 was Nigeria’s six-month ban on exporting raw shea nuts, a core input for shea butter, one of the continent’s most valuable natural cosmetic ingredients. The Nigerian government framed the export ban as a pro-value-addition policy intended to strengthen local refining and processing capacity and keep more economic value within the country. Nigeria accounts for about 40 percent of the world’s raw shea nut supply but only about 1 percent of the global shea products market, a situation the policy aims to change by incentivizing domestic processing rather than exporting raw material alone.

This policy aligns with similar moves by other West African nations like Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana, which have restricted raw shea exports in pursuit of deeper participation in the global value chain.

In East Africa, the East African Community (EAC), including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, adopted new regional standards for skincare, hair dye, and related products in 2025. These standards harmonise product specifications across member states to improve consumer safety, quality assurance, and consistency of products entering the market.

Together, these actions reflect a broader trend: regulators are not only tightening safety and quality requirements but also using policy to shape structural growth in beauty manufacturing and trade.

2. Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge

While explicit laws targeting counterfeiting are still evolving in many African markets, there are emerging frameworks and policy movements aimed at better protecting indigenous knowledge and botanical resources relevant to cosmetics.

In South Africa, for example, the national policy on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), while not specific to cosmetics, provides a framework for protecting traditional knowledge that can influence how companies source and commercialise indigenous botanical ingredients. This framework encourages benefit-sharing with communities whose knowledge contributes to commercially valuable formulations.

In Nigeria, ongoing work by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) as birthed the Beauty Standards Nigeria, a body aimed at safeguarding claims related to origin, formulation, and traditional use of cosmetic products. By clarifying standards for such claims, regulators indirectly support efforts to prevent misappropriation of ancestral knowledge in beauty products.

These developments show that intellectual property and traditional knowledge protection in beauty are increasingly part of national policy conversations, with real implications for how brands innovate with Africa’s rich natural resources.

3. Consumer Protection and Market Transparency

Across Africa, consumer protection in cosmetics is gaining attention. Regulators are tightening enforcement around product safety, labelling, and marketing claims to protect consumers from unsafe or misleading products.

In Morocco, the Moroccan Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AMMPS) implemented a ban on all cosmetic products containing Trimethylbenzoyl Diphenylphosphine Oxide (TPO), an ingredient commonly used in UV-cured nail gels, due to potential health risks. The policy prohibits marketing, importing, manufacturing, and use of TPO-based products, aligning Morocco with the European Union’s own restrictions.

Meanwhile in Nigeria, regulators have intensified scrutiny of substandard and unsafe cosmetics as the market expands, pushing for stronger enforcement and better testing capacity to ensure products on shelves meet safety standards. These efforts aim to tackle the widespread issue of counterfeit or adulterated products that pose health risks to consumers.

These shifts, whether ingredient bans or enhanced safety enforcement, increase transparency for consumers and help build trust in regulated products, which in turn can drive growth for compliant brands.

4. Opportunities for Innovation and Growth

Policy clarity and proactive regulation can stimulate innovation. Regulatory frameworks that define quality, safety, and compliance create predictable environments, which help attract both local and international investment.

Nigeria’s shea nut export ban, while controversial, signals national intent to build downstream industries and could, over time, lower barriers for investors in shea refining and formulation facilities. By securing raw material supplies for local processors, the policy aims to strengthen the value chain and boost rural employment, particularly among women, who constitute the majority of shea collectors.

Similarly, the EAC’s harmonised standards allow brands compliant in one member state to enter other regional markets with fewer regulatory hurdles, encouraging cross-border trade within the region.

Policies that reward compliance, protect intellectual property, and promote local value addition can become competitive advantages, enabling African beauty brands to innovate sustainably and compete in global markets.

5. Challenges for Businesses

Despite these opportunities, policy shifts also introduce real challenges for beauty businesses, especially startups and small-to-medium enterprises.

Compliance costs can be high, particularly for SMEs that must upgrade production methods, testing regimes, or product formulations to meet new safety and labelling standards. In markets like Nigeria, inconsistent enforcement and limited regulatory capacity can compound the difficulty of navigating requirements across multiple agencies.

The shea nut export ban illustrates another challenge: without adequate processing infrastructure, export restrictions can pressure existing businesses and disrupt traditional supply chains, sometimes adversely affecting small producers. Critics have pointed to the abrupt implementation of the ban, without a phased consultation as is being done in Ghana, as undermining sector stability.

Intellectual property disputes and the need to fairly compensate communities for traditional knowledge further complicate innovation with indigenous ingredients unless clear, enforceable frameworks are in place.

Conclusion

Regulatory policy on the African continent is evolving and increasingly influential in shaping the beauty industry’s structure, competitiveness, and sustainability. From export restrictions to harmonised standards and safety-driven ingredient bans, these shifts reflect policymakers’ efforts to balance consumer protection, value-chain development, and market growth. While compliance and infrastructure challenges persist, thoughtful collaboration between regulators, businesses, and communities can unlock significant opportunities, empowering African beauty brands to innovate responsibly and participate more fully in global markets.