So what does all this have to do with Africa Trade?
In the Walmart world where I come from I had a front row seat on how global trade worked and most importantly it became evident to me that Africa was not playing a major role in that world - It felt like Africa did not exist within the consciousness of global buying decisions; such decisions that determined global wealth distribution - the likes of which brought China to the frontlines of trade in general!
Over the years I have hosted world leaders to advance these discussions and shed more light on how to close such gaps leveraging my platform the Trade with Africa Business Summit which is now in its 4th year. Here are 5 reasons why this problem persists still today:
- Lack of Insight on Africa Trade: The world is yet to understand what Africa has to offer and sadly Africa's business and political leaders are not doing enough to sensitize and educate them. If global buyers do not know what you have they will not come to your doorstep - those who benefit from global trade find there way to such buyers and not the other way round.
- Lack of Patience: At Nazaru we support those who seek to develop effective Market Entry strategies. Many people think that this is an overnight task- no it is not. For example Apparel buying decisions are locked in at least 9 months before the first shipments go out. The 9 months is used to streamline the supply chain to source all materials etc. needed to executive the manufacturing of millions of products. It is a painstaking process that often take months even years to execute an effective strategy. For those still thinking it is overnight they are missing the full picture.
- Foreign Aid Mentality: In my Trade and Investment Masterclass I teach how Africa has to cross over from dependency on Aid to pursuing Trade. Many African government would not do what they should do because they are expecting Aid and Development organization to show up and do the work. Permit me to declare this: Development organization did not make China what it is today! Development organization cannot take credit for what China has accomplished in the trade world. So I say to Africa's leaders stop depending on Aid organization - They represent a crutch that would never support Africa in running the race to capturing current and future trade opportunities at scale.
- Investing in Knowledge Acquisition: The knowledge that would transform African trade is not free! Because of the Aid mindset - many think that someone out there would bring them the knowledge needed to transform the landscape. The reality remains that Africa must now become a student of trade to advance to the levels they want. China 20-40 years ago took this on - they travelled the world to glean from the best in class. They brought that knowledge back home and began implementing such. Transformative knowledge has to be invested in.
- Process Minded: The global market has its standards and requirements and all those that seek to engaged has to follow such. That landscape would not change for Africa. When policies such as AGOA seek to reduce Tariff barrier for Africa - Non-Tariff barriers still exist that Africa must overcome. That is what we help our clients achieve at Nazaru.
