Participants at the inaugural AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF) expressed their support for closer economic and trade ties between the two regions, which share historic and cultural ties and face critical challenges of climate change and economic reliance on commodities.
The forum, with the theme “One People, One Destiny, Uniting and Re-imagining Our Future” took place in early September 2022 in Bridgetown, Barbados. Afreximbank, Export Barbados and Invest Barbados organized the event, which several dignitaries attended, including Barbados’ President, Sandra Mason, and its Prime Minister, Mia Mottley.
Africa Investment Forum Senior Director Chinelo Anohu also took part. Anohu participated in a panel titled Building Africa -Caribbean Value Chains for Exports: Imagining Caribbean –Africa Free Trade Area Agreement. Afreximbank is a founding partner of the Africa Investment Forum, Africa’s premier investment marketplace to accelerate transactions that close Africa’s investment gaps.
Anohu’s contribution centred on the Africa Investment Forum’s role in facilitating investments, removing regulatory bottlenecks and preparing projects to bankability.
She also stressed the value of concrete steps to build closer ties between Africa and the Caribbean. Noting that a participant in the forum had traveled for 28 hours to reach Barbados, Anohu said the forum discussions should be distilled into bankable transactions and solutions to resolve these issues. “We do not have a direct flight from Nigeria, or Cote d’Ivoire to Barbados. What do we do? Do we sit and talk about it? Or do we sit down as we’re doing now to curate a transaction with willing airlines, private airlines, commercial airlines, cargo airlines, the whole gamut?”
Anohu said that the Africa Investment Forum offered a potential pathway to unlocking regulatory bottlenecks in order to present governments with solutions.
She highlighted the synergies between Africa and the Caribbean in terms of their thriving creative sectors, including music, and opportunities to promote women as investment champions. Given a current upsurge of interest in each other’s cultures, she anticipated many future collaborations between African and Caribbean creatives.
Creative industries and women investment champions are two of the Africa Investment Forum’s flagship areas of focus. The platform provides women access to financing and supports women entrepreneurs and their projects to drive the continent’s economy. During a virtual boardrooms event held in March, eight women led projects with a $4.85 billion were presented to investors.
Speaking more generally about Africa as a place to invest, Anohu said its comparative advantages “far exceed its limitations.”
Albert Muchanga, the African Union Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Industry and Mining opened the panel session on value chains. He said that although trade between the two regions was very low, “there is potential to increase trade flows between the two regions by as much as 25% within five years. This translates into $1 billion in two-way trade flows.”
Muchanga’s remarks drew on data from International Trade Center’s just-released Expanding African-Caribbean Trade report which highlights that strong partnerships between the two regions can unlock trade in agrifood, healthcare, fertilizers, automobiles and tourism.
The session’s participants included Dr. Jan Yves Remy, Director, Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services, The University of the West Indies and Segun Ajayi-Kadir, Director General, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and Co-Secretary General, Pan-Africa Manufacturers Association. Dr. Damie Sinanan, Manager, Competitiveness and Export Promotion, Caribbean Export Development Agency moderated the session.
Other panelists included Ambassador Wayne McCook, Assistant Secretary-General, CARICOM Single Market and Trade, CARICOM Secretariat; Mr. Anthony Ali, CARICOM Private Sector Organisation Executive Committee Member and Director and Chief Executive Officer, Goddard Enterprises Limited, Barbados, and Professor and Dr Richard Bunal, Principal Research Fellow at the P.J .Patterson Centre for African-Caribbean Advocacy at the University of the West Indies and Professor at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies.
Dr Remy noted synergies in the development goals of both Africa and the Caribbean. “Both regions are about using trade to advance structural transformation. By design the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and by evolution the Caribbean Community’s Single Market and Economy unit is about structural transformation. The AfCFTA reflected a sustainable and inclusive approach to trade that offered a counternarrative to neoliberal approaches, she said.
Other panelists urged for additional studies to be conducted in order to better assess the scope for more trade based on the comparative advantages of both regions as well as the logistical challenges. These challenges should not be an obstacle to pursue closer ties. “If you can use shipping liens to transport slaves centuries ago, we should be able to carry goods,” said Ajayi-Kadir.
ACTIF provides a platform for the development of strategic partnerships between the business communities in Africa and the Caribbean Community. Other goals include fostering bilateral cooperation and engagement in trade, investment and technology transfer, innovation, tourism, culture and other services. The Forum is also expected to advance the implementation of the AfCFTA and the Caribbean trade development agenda.
Anohu participated in the ACTIF as part of a series of engagements the Africa Investment Forum is participating in to drum up investor interest in its Market Days to be held from the 2nd to 4th of November in Abidjan.
The Africa Investment Forum Market Days will bring together investors, deal sponsors, and government ministers from across the world to advance transactions that have been prepared for investment-to-investment closure. Since its inception in 2018, the AIF platform has mobilised investment interests in excess of $100 billion.
The Africa Investment Forum is an initiative of the African Development Bank and seven partner institutions: Africa 50, Africa Finance Corporation, Afreximbank, Development Bank of Southern Africa, European Investment Bank, Islamic Development Bank and Trade and Development Bank.
