Tag: Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)

Doing business in Africa is challenging for companies in any industry sector. The continent offers immense opportunities, yet the diversity of demographics and geography demands tailored approaches to management and strategy. Over the past decades, Africa has experienced vast changes.

We have announced the release of our latest report, ‘CEO Agenda 2025’. This comprehensive study offers critical insights into the complex challenges facing global CEOs. It also presents strategic priorities for leaders as a roadmap for navigating a rapidly evolving world.

Africa presents a compelling – albeit complex – investment landscape. While challenges such as political instability, currency volatility, and limited liquidity persist, significant opportunities counterbalance them. These growth options stem from powerful demographic shifts, digital transformation, and burgeoning intra-continental trade.

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) increases customs duties for online retail orders as part of a broader strategy to promote local businesses and address global supply chain imbalances. The clothing and textile industry has faced widescale criticism for controversial environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. South African consumers may imagine themselves to be far from the hub of these issues. However, we are all participants in the global supply and demand for fashion.

Before we can unpack the operating challenges and opportunities in transactional banking, we need to emphasise this point. The global economy has faced a re-set of sorts as inflation has spiked higher and global interest rates have risen from historical lows. It is certainly not ‘business as usual’ in the world of financial services and banking.

There are many challenges for treasuries across the world, in any market, but the developing world has an opportunity for a head start in the switch to digital. This is borne out by the fact that the adoption of best practice treasury management tools, technology and integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that feed off data points all along the ERP value chain, are entirely within the grasp of corporate treasuries.

The fast-evolving emobility sector presents a significant opportunity for sustainable growth and job creation in Africa, but some constraints need to be overcome. Many South Africans who struggle every day to reach their places of work using minibus taxis or cars on congested motorways may find it hard to believe that an emobility revolution is about to happen. But there are a number of trends moving in that direction.

A trade in the commercial sense is a mutually beneficial exchange. With the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement having come into operation in 2021, it would be fitting to remind ourselves of the benefits of free and unfettered trade, especially for the African continent and its people.

As Africa continues to chart its course to economic prosperity, one vital pillar will be supply chain. A prosperous Africa is a continent exporting finished value-added products to the rest of the world. For this to happen, supply chain must take its rightful place.

On 1 January 2021 trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) started. The AfCFTA, with its 35 signatories, is an instrument that legitimises the creation of a single continental market for goods and services.