As we leave the EU, we’re building a platform for expanding our trade with Africa
Under a crisp January sky, 15 heads of government from among the largest and fastest-growing economies in Africa gathered in London’s Docklands on Monday for the UK-Africa Investment Summit. A high-energy day, kicked off by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and ending at Buckingham Palace, saw the announcement of commercial deals worth over R120bn, plus a range of new UK government initiatives to help boost the business environment and stimulate investment and trade.
SA was well represented, led by international relations & co-operation minister Naledi Pandor, with finance minister Tito Mboweni and public works minister Patricia de Lille, head of investment in the presidency Dr Kgosientso Ramokgopa, Western Cape premier Alan Winde, presidential investment envoy Jacko Maree, big businesses such as Vodacom and Anglo American, the British and South African chambers of commerce, and innovative tech start-ups from SA.
For us, this was not a one-off event, but part of a long-term recommitment to Africa. The idea of holding this summit was announced by our previous prime minister, Theresa May, in Cape Town in August 2018. It reflects a detailed review within the British government of our engagement with Africa, and a determination to up our game, to ensure that we remain a leading partner as Africa grows and takes its rightful place on the world stage.
There are a lot of summits with and about Africa, and we were determined this one should add real value. We focused it specifically on outward direct investment, first because that is what African governments and businesses put top of their list when we ask how we can help them deliver jobs and growth. And second, because when it comes to outward direct investment, we start from a strong position and believe we have a lot to offer.
The UK has long been a leading investor in Africa, and remains by some way the largest investor in SA measured by stock. That is not just a reflection of shared history, but of the interconnectedness and complementarity of our economies in the 21st century. It reflects the continuing strength of the City of London as a source of, and conduit for, outward investment to fund Africa’s development.
Monday’s summit was an opportunity to showcase the unique breadth of the financing offer available, from private and from government-backed sources. I was particularly pleased to see the launch of the Growth Gateway, a R700m programme to help businesses access the support on offer from the UK to trade and invest in Africa.
The 27 new commercial deals around the continent announced on Monday reflected the breadth of British business engagement, and where growth is happening in Africa today: in sectors from energy to aircraft engines, from irrigation to insurance, from new hospitals to transport infrastructure like the new Cairo monorail. Africa is growing fast — not evenly, for sure, but unmistakeably.
There was a big focus at the summit on clean energy, with London-based investors eager to back new investments in renewables in Africa. To underline the inflection point we have reached, as the scale of the global climate emergency becomes ever clearer, our prime minister announced that the British government will no longer give financial support to any new thermal coal power plants, anywhere in the world.
As we leave the EU at the end of the week, we’re also building a platform for expanding our trade with Africa. We have already negotiated a UK-only successor deal to replace the existing EU-Sacu [Southern African Customs Union] Economic Partnership Agreement. That is a dynamic agreement, with an in-built mechanism to negotiate enhanced access in both directions.
Because we know trade doesn’t just happen because of government agreements, we announced a new R3.5bn programme of technical assistance to help Southern African states clear away practical obstacles to intra-African trade: customs infrastructure and processes, and behind-the-border barriers. We’re excited by the potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area, and want to help the AU make the most of it to drive jobs and growth in Africa.
It’s a privilege to be the UK’s high commissioner in SA at any time. But I’m especially lucky to be here at a time when we are reinvesting in and re-energising our relationships across Africa. We’re opening five extra embassies — already achieved in Lesotho and Eswatini, with Chad, Niger and Djibouti to follow. We’re adding hundreds of extra staff to our diplomatic network across Africa, boosting our capacity to work not just on investment and trade, but on other shared priorities like climate change. It’s great to be part of that, and I’m determined that, notwithstanding current economic challenges, SA should remain at the heart of the story.