dti Leads Business Delegation to Nigeria, Ghana

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) will lead a business delegation on a Trade and Investment Mission to Accra, Ghana and Lagos, Nigeria from March 20-25, 2017.

The mission forms part of the dti’s objective to identify and create export markets for South African value-added products and services.

It will also serve to promote South African products, and service offerings, whilst creating business partnerships between business communities of the respective countries.

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies says that the mission is aimed at advancing Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa’s trade and investment relations.

Both Ghana and Nigeria feature as key strategic partners for South Africa in the West Africa, region and are pivotal partners towards advancing integration on the continent.

Minister Davies adds that the department has prioritised engagements with these two strategic markets following from the successful state visit to Nigeria last year.

“The mission will also create a platform to facilitate networking and the obtaining of information on the dynamics of the industries, as well as availability of partnership opportunities in both Ghana and Nigeria. It will also provide opportunities for relationship building amongst business communities,” he adds.

According to Minister Davies, as both Ghanaian and Nigerian economies diversify away from oil, South Africa can assist with the necessary skills and expertise required to advance the diversification of both markets, at the same time increasing the South African footprint both in value-added products and investments in these market.

He adds that South Africa’s exports to Nigeria almost doubled from R5.8 billion in 2012 to R9.9 billion in 2015, accounting for 6% increase in the growth rate, and slightly declined to R6.4 billion in 2016.

The two countries continuously traded goods at high capacity and Nigeria maintained the trade surplus of R23 billion in 2016.

“In 2016, South Africa’s total trade of goods to Ghana reached R45.09 billion. This comprised of exports valued at R4.9 billion, whilst imports were valued at R192 million. South Africa registered a trade surplus of R4.7 billion with Ghana in 2016.” says Minister Davies.

Sectors targeted for the mission are Agro- Processing; Electro-technical; Infrastructure, Mining and Capital Equipment. The programme for the mission will include trade and investment seminars, site visits and business-to-business meetings.