[Africa’s Economies\COVID-19]
The Africa Report: “There is a need to focus on fundamentals: producing more of what Africa consumes, and consuming more of what Africa produces.”
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The COVID-19 pandemic and its health and economic impacts has forced a global rethink of the current multilateral framework and what it means for the future.
For Africa, COVID-19 has served as a wake-up call in many ways.
The mitigation measures that were put in place by most countries globally to contain the spread of the pandemic, and particularly border closures and lockdowns, resulted in reduced economic activity and supply chain disruptions across the whole world, Africa included.
Reduced economic activity has meant demand contraction in Africa’s key markets, who were worse affected by the pandemic, thus depressing export revenues as commodity prices have continued to plummet.
Africa’s overdependence
Several African manufacturers have successfully reoriented operations to begin production of Protective Personal Equipment (PPE) and ventilators to meet local demand.
However, for the most part, pandemic-related disruptions have exposed African economies’ overdependence on high commodity prices and exports of raw materials to fund basic government services.
Together, disrupted international supply chains and domestic lockdowns created a perfect storm in which income, goods or services stopped circulating as economies came to a standstill.
No money, no movement, and a realization that most African countries lack economic diversity and resilience.
So, what is to be done? Simply put, there is a need to focus on fundamentals: producing more of what Africa consumes, and consuming more of what Africa produces. This does not mean cutting Africa off from the outside world.
However, it does mean focusing first and foremost on the African market, and other markets secondarily.
Read rest of story here: https://www.theafricareport.com/38264/africas-key-to-wealth-growth-produce-and-consume-locally/
