Yesterday, we celebrated Africa Day, which commemorates the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union, on 25 May 1963.
Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunity, Mireille Wenger, said: “Today we celebrate this special place which we call home and focus on how we can grow the economy and create more jobs. Increasing trade, boosting investment and growing tourism between the Western Cape and the rest of Africa is a priority for the Western Cape Government.
Restoring air connectivity after the pandemic has been a top priority of our Air Access team in Wesgro, with Air Botswana, Ethiopian Airlines, Fly Namibia, Kenya Airways, TAAG, Rwanda Air and Airlink now flying to Cape Town International Airport. We have more work to do especially with Ghana and Nigeria, and the team is working hard to open direct routes between Cape Town and West Africa.
The Western Cape government’s official trade, investment and tourism promotion partner, Wesgro, continues to build strong strategic partnerships with the rest of Africa to boost trade and investment. This includes 14 trade missions in the 2022/23 financial year, including to Uganda, Cameroon, Namibia, Angola, Zambia and Nigeria.
The Western Cape also has strong investment ties with our sister countries on the continent and, over the last decade, Western Cape companies have invested more into other African countries than anywhere else in the world.”
Minister of Agriculture, Dr Ivan Meyer, said: “Agriculture is the single most important economic activity in Africa. It provides employment opportunities, food security, and economic growth. For this reason, the Western Cape Department of Agriculture considers market access a critical variable in the growth of the agricultural sector and the Western Cape economy.
The Western Cape agricultural sector is export-oriented and contributes more than half of all national agricultural exports. Africa is the third-largest market of the Western Cape’s primary agricultural exports, accounting for R4.3 billion in 2021.
As highlighted in my budget address, the Western Cape Department of Agriculture is developing a strategy to guide its approach to the African Market.
Our aim is to unlock agricultural opportunities in Africa and for the Western Cape Agricultural Sector including agricultural products trade, inputs, services, technology partnerships, information, skills development and training and logistics.”
