Page 16 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 25
P. 16
Leadership
companies source leather car
seats from a factory in Lesotho
employing close to a thousand
workers and wiring harnesses
from Botswana at two plants
employing several thousand
workers. They source copper
wire from Zambia, rubber
from Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria,
Malawi, Ghana and Cameroon,
and steering wheel components
from Tunisia.
Proforce: Total Defence Solution Provider Specialized In Armoured
vehicles and personal protection. Nigeria.
These are installed in cars
that are then exported from
South Africa to other parts of
among ourselves must truly The implementation of the the world. These inputs alone
be ‘Made in Africa’.The African Continental Free accounted for more than $200
modalities for trade in goods Trade Area will accelerate the million worth of products
has moved faster than for development of regional and traded among African countries
services. We therefore need to local value chains, offering and the scope to do more is
put more effort into building investors access to a population available to us.
African champions in finance, of 1.7 billion people with a
retail and telecommunications, fast-growing continental GDP. But it requires bold rules of
and in expanding tourism Industrial development is origin. For every one percent of
between African countries. core to Africa’s integration. extra African content, there is
It builds Africa’s productive an opportunity for a factory or
That is the only way in which capacities, adds greater value mine based on the continent to
our economies will grow faster to our products and diversifies supply the products.
and sustainably. The African trade beyond the traditional
Continental Free Trade Area commodities. We have already And as the world moves to
creates the world’s largest seen the potential of greater green industrialisation, Africa
free trade area by number of cross-border collaboration. is well positioned to use our
countries, and has the potential critical minerals to leverage
to bring transformative change Let me give the example of a industrialisation on the
and tremendous opportunities value-chain that is developing continent.
to African economies and in the auto industry.
businesses. The opportunities are vast: in
South African automotive food and beverages, in cars
16 | we tell the true afrikan story
