Banele Ginindza
SOUTH Africa will need the competitive advantage of strong logistical infrastructure, the most advanced knowledge base and connectivity to stay ahead of the pack.
This would be required as trade lanes shift and the Asia-Pacific region along with the Middle East threaten South Africa’s position as the gateway to the rest of Africa, according to DHL Express sub-Saharan Africa managing director Charles Brewer.
Speaking to Business Report yesterday, Brewer said from a logistics business viewpoint there were stronger inroads into the rest of Africa made by the Asia-Pacific and Middle East.
“Historically sub-Saharan Africa has been very dependent, as has South Africa, on imports from Europe but that has changed and moved towards Asia-Pacific, which is not too surprising, there is more and more production out of Asia Pacific,” he said.
He said maybe South Africa would serve more of southern and east Africa while central and west Africa would be more reliant on Europe and middle East as the flows of trade have changed and they would change more as we go forward.
Brewer was commenting on DHL’s report on its expectations for Africa in the 2015 financial year.
“With the increase in Middle Eastern carriers flying to central, west and east Africa in particular, we saw that dependency (on SA) shifting.
“We are seeing greater trade growth, particularly from Middle East to west and east Africa to a lesser degree, therefore the dependency on SA has shifted,” he said.
Brewer said he believed that the role South Africa would play in the sub-Saharan Africa region would remain strong for a long time to come.
DHL, which has been in South Africa for 31 years of its 46-year history, said it expected 2015 to be a year of growth for the logistics industry on the African continent, largely driven by increased consumer demand and the rapidly developing e-commerce industry.
The global group, which operates in 52 countries in Africa, ended 2014 with revenue of e56.6 billion (R741.3bn), up 3.1 percent from 2013.
It was helped by a focus on e-commerce and emerging markets, which includes Africa.
“Africa is kind of a last frontier for most organisations to look at as a potential area of significant growth, probably the last region in the world that is going to see significant growth over the next five to 20 years,” he said.
He said for DHL, the focus would be on the continent and was eyeing opportunities in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and Angola.
“All indicators show us that Africa is going to grow, whether it will rise by middle class, whether its technology or use of online payments, everything is pushing towards having a fairly increasingly wealthier middle class which means they will buy products,” he said.
Brewer pointed to an International Data Corporation statistics, which predicted that closer intra-Africa trade would be seen in 2015, promoted by information and communication technology initiatives such as payment systems, financial inclusion initiatives and cross border permits
.”