Africa does not lack instruments to boost trade within its bounds. Trade conferences convened to open African markets to African economies have been held for too long.
The paradox, nevertheless, is that even African countries that share borders are millions of miles apart in terms of trade. They trade more with Europe, America and Asia even for goods their neighbours produce.
Africa loses numerous opportunities due to its insatiable appetite for imports from overseas and projects that start and end on paper.
For example, there was glamour and pomp on January 13 2022 when the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (Papss) was launched in Accra, Ghana.
There was similar excitement during the launch of the East Africa Payment System 2014.
However, to trade within Africa, neighbouring countries still use the US dollar, not local currencies.
The rollout of the Africa Trade Portal was conceived to make intra-Africa trade simple, but it offers scanty market information. The quick links on its website hardly offer the information traders need. Often, no information is provided.
Compare this with China’s Alibaba, where you get an array of products at a click of a button.
Just like that, it is easier for Malawians to buy goods from China than our neighbouring countries.
Trade statistics unmask a chilling gap: In 2023, Tanzania imported 75 000 metric tonnes of rice from Pakistan, 39 000MT from Thailand and 18 000MT from India, yet Malawi, just next door, produces aromatic kilombero rice—probably the best in the world. It appears Tanzanian markets have no umbilical ties to Malawian rice producers, save for mobile vendors who buy the produce on the cheap.
In 2022, South Africa imported two million metric tonnes of rice worth $ 955 million, mostly from Thailand and India.
It takes 19 to 34 days to ship rice from India to South Africa, sources show. Paradoxically, one can transport rice from Malawi to South Africa within three days.
Africa is trade disconnected. Malawi imports textiles from China while Kenya, a two-hour flight away, is a heavyweight apparel exporter.
Kenya imports raw cotton from Pakistan and France while Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast nearby are major cotton producers—notwithstanding that their priority markets are Bangladesh, Vietnam, China and Malaysia.
Likewise, Kenyans import wheat from China, India and Italy though Ethiopia is the continent’s largest producer of the cereal.
Bizarrely, Namibia imports mineral water from the US even though Malawi has vast quantities of freshwater and groundwater.
Angola once imported 94MT of tomato from overseas while Nigeria and Malawi had fresh tomato rotting by roadside markets like Zalewa in Neno District, Tsangano and Lizulu in Ntcheu Bwengu in Mzimba and Phwezi in Rumphi.
Africa needs to be connected through the air, land and sea for easy movement of people and goods. The continent’s air travel system remains too chaotic to spur trade within the continent.
Voice of Africa laments the high travel cost across the continent, where a flight from Libreville in Gabon to Bangui in Central Africa Republic takes at least nine hours, with shambolic change of flights on the way. Comparatively, a flight between Paris and Madrid, an equivalent distance, takes two hours and costs five times less.
Malawi shares its largest boundary with Mozambique, one cannot fly between Lilongwe and Maputo without changing flights in South Africa, Ethiopia, and Kenya . Yet there are direct Maputo-bound flights from Lisbon in Portugal.
There were instances where passengers taking a 500kilometre flight between Lilongwe and Lusaka in Zambia had to stop and change flights at Nampula Airport in Mozambique and Nairobi in Kenya.
There are direct flights between Rabat in Morocco and the US and 23 destinations in Europe, yet one would struggle to find direct flights to five African countries.
The missing Holy Grail in Africa is the information that connects markets and producers within the continent. The costly gaps in travel connectedness keep the continent poor.
Only trade, not aid, will develop Africa. But, first and foremost, trade-boosting infrastructure needs to be modernised and harmonized, the payment systems have to work. The dollarisation in-Africa trade renders local currencies useless.
