Welcome to Part 2 of our look at the supply chain in Africa. As we said in Part 1 , Africa is big: about The continent has eight primary physical regions — the Sahara, the Sahel, the Ethiopian Highlands, the savanna, the Swahili Coast, the rain forest, the African Great Lakes, and Southern Africa — and traversing these diverse landscapes is not always easy. Which brings us to the first challenge for the supply chain in Africa: physical and electronic infrastructure. Stated simply, Africa has a long way to go with infrastructure.
The challenge is self-evident. Agenda has ambitious infrastructure components e. But it will take time. The informal economy. Research from showed that the informal sector provided 90 percent of all new jobs and 70 percent of all employment across sub-Saharan Africa. This means that a significant part of the supply chain in Africa is informal, operating through non-official channels and without government oversight, regulation, or taxation.
This makes it difficult for businesses to operate in Africa and enables an environment in which other supply chain problems can arise. Illegal copying and counterfeiting is widespread in Africa, as it is in other parts of the world with unregulated informal economies and insufficient supply chain protections. Bad actors are only too happy to exploit these conditions. For example, 42 percent of all fake medicines reported to the World Health Organization from to came from Africa.
WHO estimates one of every 10 medical products in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or fake. Examples of similar events include the following:. The rise of manufacturing. At about the same time, the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 10 countries were making vaccines right now or planning to do so , with South Africa, Senegal, Rwanda, Algeria, and Morocco taking leading roles. And this is emblematic of an African manufacturing renaissance of sorts.
Output had dropped by Other examples are abundant: Carmaker Nissan is opening new facilities, and analysts see Africa emerging as an auto industry hub , including for electric vehicles. Overall, research shows that manufacturing on the continent is growing, or strongly rebounding from the pandemic, especially in key economies in sub-Saharan Africa.
