The UAE can act as a catalyst to harness the promise of Africa

DP World operates nine ports in Africa, including a 30-year concession agreement to run and upgrade Dar es Salaam port in Tanzania. Unsplash

The town of Boundiali in the north-west of Cote d’Ivoire is a seven-hour drive from the economic capital Abidjan. Located on a large plateau, it is surrounded by extensive plains that are dotted with trees and farmlands, many of them given over to the region’s principal crops of cotton, cassava and rice. This community of less than 50,000 may not, on the surface, appear to be a natural magnet for foreign direct investment but it is the site of the UAE’s latest contribution to West Africa’s economic development.

Last month, I joined Cote d’Ivoire’s Prime Minister Robert Beugre Mambe in Boundiali to inaugurate a state-of-the-art cashew processing facility owned and operated by Pan African Agro Commodities Holding Limited, an entity incorporated in Abu Dhabi Global Market with the aim of expanding the continent’s agricultural sector. Its daily processing capacity of 100 tonnes will increase the production of the nation’s second-most important export product and support more than 4,000 jobs along the value chain – the vast majority outside the main metropolis. Once fully up and running, the project will confirm the UAE’s status as the largest external job creator in the country.

This is emblematic of the UAE’s investment strategy in Africa: from Cairo to Cape Town, Morocco to Mozambique, we are seeking partnerships capable of fostering opportunity, supporting diversification, increasing economic and energy independence and delivering long-term, sustainable growth. This means enhancing the export potential of primary and secondary industries such as agriculture, mining and manufacturing and ensuring the development of tertiary industries such as finance, information and communications technology, logistics and professional services. The UAE is using the longest possible lens to see reciprocal benefits available in Africa.

The UAE is using the longest possible lens to see reciprocal benefits available in Africa

In recent years, the scale of our investments has matched the scope of our ambition. In 2023, the UAE’s total commitment to the continent was $44.5 billion, which was not only the most by any foreign nation but twice the amount of the next highest investor, China – and seven times more than the figure committed by the US. Last year’s investment alone helped create more than 18,000 jobs, with renewable energy and infrastructure among the most prominent sectors.

Indeed, renewable energy is one area in which the UAE is driving the most tangible change. At Cop28 in Dubai in November 2023, Masdar signed projects with six nations as part of a $10 billion commitment to provide 10GW of clean energy in Africa by 2030, which will help provide access to electricity for the nearly 50 per cent of sub-Saharan Africans who currently lack it. They include solar projects in Angola and a collaboration to expand the geothermal energy capacity in Kenya. Just this month, Dubai’s AMEA Power announced an agreement to build, own and operate Aysha Wind 1, a $620 million solar wind farm in Ethiopia that will power more than 4 million households.

Logistics is another priority sector that can unlock Africa’s potential, by enabling the export of key products and adding value with capabilities such as manufacturing, processing and assembly. DP World operates nine ports in Africa, the most recent being a 30-year concession agreement to run and upgrade Dar es Salaam Port in Tanzania. In 2022, the company also bought South Africa’s Imperial Logistics for $890 million, which operates in 26 countries across Africa and Europe. In the same year, AD Ports completed its first international acquisition, buying a controlling stake in Egypt’s Transmar Shipping and Transcargo International Company and enabling it to penetrate the important North Africa and Red Sea regions.

We are also facilitating joint ventures in other vital sectors such as agriculture, including the cultivation of rice and avocados in Angola, real estate in Egypt and South Africa, and education, in particular an initiative to train five million coders in Ethiopia. Emirates airlines flies to 22 African cities and that direct connectivity is crucial to opening up business networks, investments and tourism.

People might see these investments as high risk. We believe it’s entirely the opposite. While there is not “one Africa”, this is very much a continent that is brimming with optimism, where forward-thinking governments are developing the policies and ecosystems that will deliver the opportunities their people crave. This is a continent whose population is set to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, with a growing middle class that will unlock $3 trillion in consumer spending by 2030. Africa has two thirds of the world’s arable land and an abundance of raw materials – copper, lithium and cobalt – that are essential to energy transition objectives. One of the biggest risks for the UAE lies in not investing enough in Africa.

The same conviction is behind the expansion of our Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement programme into Africa. A few weeks ago, we signed a CEPA with the island nation of Mauritius, which will accelerate bilateral, non-oil trade by removing tariffs, enhancing market access to services, aligning customs procedures and creating new pathways for investments and small and medium enterprise collaborations. It follows the agreement of Cepa terms with Congo-Brazzaville and Kenya, which promise productive partnerships in energy, food security and mining.

Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, and Maneesh Gobin, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International trade of Mauritius, finalised the terms of a Cepa deal in Mauritius. Courtesy: Dubai Media Office

Importantly, as our trade network expands, these CEPAs will also help businesses across the continent to better connect to global markets, increasing their export potential, driving new capabilities and elevating their competitiveness.

While the world talks about deglobalisation and fragmentation, we believe Africa can be a new hub for growth and innovation. It can not only bridge the major economic blocs across Asia, Europe and North America, but also emerge, thanks to the African Continental Free Trade Area, as a major force in its own right – one that will have a major role in the global economy in the decades ahead.

We see our role as a catalyst – and, ultimately, a champion of that growing influence.