Africa is on the brink of importing more than what it currently exports, believes the head of regional food trade at Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, Daniel Nijwa.
Due to the non-tariff border challenges threatening the sustainability of farmers, many are unable to do inter-trade relations, explained Nijwa on day one of the three-day African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) business forum in Cape Town.
Africa’s private sector descended upon Cape Town to participate in the first AfCFTA forum in person.
Some of the objectives of the event are to create awareness of the current trade and investment opportunities in AfCFTA among Africa’s business community; connect businesses to funding opportunities for AfCFTA value chains; and promote a private sector-friendly environment. This is especially for small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) led by women and youth, to unlock more accessible and affordable trade finance opportunities.
Speaking at the AfCFTA, Nijwa cautioned Africa could import more in the future than what it is now. To avoid this, both small-scale and commercial farmers must be prioritised in terms of trade.
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“Industrialisation and growth will not happen when farmers cannot sell their produce to other countries, we are talking about non-tariff issues like endless paperwork and visas that are needed for farmers to trade.”
“This has led to Africa importing wheat, maize and soya, which are products that we should be able to export, but the dilapidated infrastructure and border management dilemma, farmers are unable to be in business,” he said.
Cut red tape for farmers
Agriculture and agro-processing are the backbones of AfCFTA, said Nijwa. At least 60% of the population in Africa, mainly women and youth, are involved in the sector he added.
“It is not all lost because we have started seeing countries like Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria starting to push when it comes to rice. However, there is still another elephant in the room, which [is] infrastructure that hampers the growth of those small-scale to commercial farmers.
“To cross a border in Africa with bags of maize meal a farmer can spend two to three days at a border. What about fresh produce like tomatoes, will they be of good quality?” he asked.
Nijwa said AfCFTA must not only be a trade programme, but an action-orientated plan that cuts red tape currently hampering growth.
“Farmers are frustrated at the borders. They are spending a lot of money on operational inputs like fertilisers but cannot trade. That is money down the drain.
“Africa annually imports baby food like powders worth between $600 000 and $1 billion, but we have lots of livestock in our continent, we do not believe in ourselves,” he said.
Africa can trade on its own
Rex Owusu Marfo, managing director of Abaso Cocoa Processing, said Africa “is speaking left but walking right”.
“We are not intentional on growth when it comes to agro-processing. Today Ghana and Ivory Coast produce 60% of the global cocoa but none of those countries is benefiting from what they produce.
“Only 20% of cocoa in Ghana is processed locally by international companies, the rest of it we export, and get it back as chocolates, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder. We have policies that are not implemented, yet we produce all this,” he said.
Marfo said Africa can no longer be a victim. Instead, a strategy is required on how to better benefit from what is produced on the continent.
“If African countries cannot empower their own farmers which will lead to job creation and boost the economy, then we are doomed as the continent.
“African states need to link local producers who are farmers with financial institutions and create a conducive environment and stop relying on international companies to make things happen in Africa,” he said.
Marfo added that foreign investments were prioritised over local producers while Africa can trade on its own with its own population.
Create a conducive environment first
Leadership is needed to unblock the potential growth of agriculture and agro-processing, said Harry Bloechlinger, managing director of Buhler.
“We need to be brutally honest with ourselves and our capabilities. Some of the challenges we have about agro-processing in Africa is that we have too low production of raw material and too high imports of raw material,” he said.
In order for Africa to flourish and be able to feed its people, energy, water availability, smoother border cross and friendly policies needed to be in place. This is according to the principal advisor on value chains at AfCFTA, Themba Khumalo.
“Agriculture is one of our priority areas because many countries in the continent are into agriculture.[This] is one of the industries that create jobs, so there is a need for it to have a conducive environment to operate,” he said.
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