COVID-19 Africa Watch talks to Gagan Gupta, co-founder of Arise IIP, Arise IS and Arise P&L, about COVID-19’s impacts on trade trends in Africa and the infrastructure priorities for accelerating the economic recovery.

Key Takeaways

Below are some of the main takeaways from COVID-19 Africa Watch’s conversation with Gagan Gupta – co-founder of Arise – a pan-African ecosystem developer that designs, creates, finances, and builds interconnected infrastructure and provides logistics solutions.

• COVID-19 has accelerated five trade trends that affect African economies. First, the African countries are attempting to diversify their supply chain away from Asia. Second, as a response to the massive need for carbon reduction globally, industries are being relocated, bringing the supply chains closer to where the raw material is. Third, the polarization of international trade between Western trade blocs and Asian trade blocs is presenting the opportunity for Africa to position itself as an alternative. Fourth, there is the opportunity for Africa to shift from a global commodity supplier to a global manufacturing powerhouse, supplying to other customer blocs. Finally, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is likely to boost intra-regional cooperation and trade with other blocs.

• To ensure that intra-African trade growth materializes at scale and in a timely manner, there needs to be the logistics infrastructure to move goods within the Africa as well as a need for additional capital and financial infrastructure.

• The ingredients for Africa’s industrial success include the availability of cost-competitive hard infrastructure such as water, roads, and electricity, but also require “soft infrastructure in place,” including conducive government frameworks and the right financing structures.

The interview was conducted by Davis Laporte, an IFC-Milken Institute Capital Market Scholar and Chief Investment Officer at the Seychelles Pension Fund. A transcript is available below.