It will also unpack the existing opportunities that African economies can leverage to succeed in creating an industrialised and prosperous continent.
Value chains have been in the news recently: growing economic nationalism, disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic and the blockage of the Suez Canal by the container ship the Ever Given have highlighted the fragility of global production and manufacturing value chains.
A new SAIIA publication explores the need for the African continent to be innovative in its approach to drive value chain creation through the AfCFTA.
The core aim of the AfCFTA is to revive manufacturing capacity and industries across African economies and thereby realise development gains, such as providing employment for the youth of the continent. Two dimensions are pertinent to this discussion: how can the continent leverage its own abundance of mineral resources to produce goods that are needed on the continent (and at the same time reduce the pressure on some global value chains); and how can the continent leverage its relationship with third parties to better achieve this goal. The current global shortage of semi-conductor chips is illustrative: African countries can domestically produce these from available raw materials, to be used in cars or electronic devices manufactured in Africa for African (and eventually global) markets.
Download the speakers’ biographies.
Download the report: Why Regional Value Chains in Africa Need to go Digital
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