A time of great opportunity for Africa

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Africa Summit in Cape Town this week happens at a crucial time, when co-ordinated responses are required to position Africa as a winner rather than a loser in today’s raging global trade and political battles.

There is a real and serious risk that Africa will lose out in the global protectionist wars if it fails to strengthen its economic positioning through investment in key industries.

Africa has very encouraging prospects for inclusive growth, provided leaders are prepared to make the hard decisions.

That is why one of the key challenges and opportunities facing the more than 1,000 regional and global leaders from industry, government, academia and civil society who will be gathering in Cape Town is careful strategic reflection on how to advance Africa’s global positioning.

The theme of this year’s summit is “Shaping Inclusive Growth and Shared Futures in the Fourth Industrial Revolution”. One of the key challenges is reducing the gap between “digital haves” and “digital have-nots” on a continent with the lowest digital penetration in the world.

In previous industrial revolutions, Africa was largely a spectator at best or on the receiving end at worst. Now is the time for Africa to execute its own strategies to advance its interests.

The fourth industrial revolution should be seen as an opportunity. Africa has the world’s most youthful population. Young people are the engine of the digital economy. Most of the successful starts-ups that have unleashed global economic and social

disruption were founded by young, innovative entrepreneurs.

We need to create the right ecosystem for Africa’s young entrepreneurs to come up with innovations that provide solutions to African and global problems.

What about the key issue of “shared futures” in an increasingly polarised world?

Africa needs to have a clearer sense of its collective regional interests and how they intersect with its global strategic partners. And it must have a clear strategic concept on how to manage and leverage its relations with China.

China has a well-defined and focused strategy on Africa. It is not clear, however, whether Africa has a welldefined and focused strategy on China. The same applies to other countries and regions.

The signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement was a milestone that will create the world’s largest free-trade area with more than 1-billion people and $3.4-trillion (R52-trillion) in GDP.

Africa is notorious as being the continent that trades and invests the least with itself. Promoting intra-African trade, investment and free movement of people will further unlock Africa’s economic potential.

It is very encouraging that almost half of the world’s top 40 fastest-growing economies are African, and on the political leadership front Africa continues to deepen democracy and improve the efficacy of institutional governance structures and processes in ways that inspire investor confidence. That is key to inclusive growth and a shared future for all Africans.

In previous industrial revolutions, Africa was largely a spectator at best

Dlamini, the chair of Massmart and Aspen Pharmacare, is a former WEF Young Global Leader and was co-chair of the WEF Africa Summit in Tanzania in 2011