Africa has always been a fascinating continent. Archaeologists have found remains of hominids – early examples of homo sapiens dating back about 200,000 years......
The
earliest recorded history of civilization is that of ancient Egypt, and
later the nations around the horn of Africa – Nubia, or Ethiopia as we
know it today.
Africa’s
riches, both in terms of products, mineral resources and human capital
have been “harvested” for centuries by foreign nations, starting from
the capture and exportation of slaves as labourers by Arab traders in
about 700 AD. In the 15th century, European nations – the Portuguese,
Dutch, British, German and French – joined in the “scramble for Africa”,
not only to get its resources, but also to colonise large parts of the
continent and make it their own. De-colonisation took place around 1960,
and many African nations developed their own identity.
Now,
in 2020, Africa is ready to enter the world stage, not as a desirable
supplier of materials, people and other resources, but as a world trade
partner. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is recognizing this by its
intention to appoint a new Director - General. It will choose between
two candidates – one from Africa (Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former
Minister of Finance in Nigeria) and the other from East Asia (Dr Yoo
Myung-hee, former minister of Trade in South Korea).
Africa is poised to become a serious global trade partner. The days of Africa being a source of raw materials which were acquired at favourable prices and flowed out of Africa, were refined or further processed into higher value products and often sold back into African markets, are no more.
Trade with Africa will in future be coupled with development of human capital, and investment to establish technologies and processes that will enable Africans produce high tech products by adoption of technological infrastructure to make this a reality. The old model of shipping out resources, reworking these in other countries and distributing finished products worldwide, simply does not make economic sense.
International trade must become holistic – not only trading goods, but exchanging know-how, infrastructure and ideas.
So
what are some of the major trading areas that are likely to emerge?
What Africa has in abundance, and must guard (and in many instances
re-establish) is its natural beauty including its flora and fauna. The
potential of eco-tourism for visitors from other continents that lack
this beauty, to experience Africa’s wild life, is enormous.
In
the field of education, the development of online tools like the
internet and other IT products, opens up huge opportunities to enter the
online learning sector which can create much more cost-effective ways
of educating people than attending formal schools and universities.
The
combination of growing food products, and their processing – like
growing sugarcane and making sugar, growing cocoa and coffee, and
converting these into chocolate and roast coffee as beans or ground
coffee, is an obvious opportunity in this country of abundant land and
sunshine.
In the field of energy, the expansion of solar electricity
generation is a must to take advantage of the many hours of daily
sunlight available in many areas of the continent.
On the artistic field, promotion of African creativity in the clothing, music, scupture and literary sectors is a no-brainer.
As an investor, you would be short-sighted not to look to Africa for your next major expansion.
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