An expert has said that Africa needs to realize the opportunities it has as a result of the rising cost pressures in China that is shifting manufacturing out of Chinese provinces and into lower cost centres.
According to Dr Martyn Davies, CEO of Frontier Advisory, this presents the continent with “a great opportunity for African economies to absorb this bottom end, low cost manufacturing capacity.”
Speaking to How we made it in Africa,he said the continent should create an enabling environment for the manufacturing sector to flourish. He identified poor infrastructure and simplistic value supply chains as are key challenges.
“And we have very poor rudimentary policies and practices by many African governments who don’t see this opportunity of creating viable – what are very nascent currently, but increasingly viable – low end manufacturing sectors (but high employment generating sectors most importantly) in their own economies,” he said.