Bobby J. Moroe
Ahead of the 15th BRICS Summit to be held in South Africa from 22-24 August 2023, the South African Tourism in partnership with the BRICS Business Council, Brand South Africa and the South African Consulate in Lagos hosted two key events and celebrations to promote the country in its efforts to champion Africa’s membership of the BRICS formation.
The celebrations kick-started with the first event on Saturday, 01 July 2023, with pomp and ceremony on the banks of the Lagos lagoon to commemorate the birth month of former President Nelson Mandela at an event dubbed the Global South Africans Celebrations.
On a tranquil and slightly breezy mid-afternoon, the Terraform Restaurant, was abuzz with well over 100 guests comprising of South Africans in Nigeria and friends of South Africa gathered to celebrate the life and times of the former stateman. Had he been alive, he would be turning 105 years of age on 18 July 2023.
The second is the BRICS Business Roundtable held on Tuesday, 04 February 2023 at Radisson Blu Hotel in Lagos VI. The roundtable discussion, led by a high-powered panel comprising of, inter alia, the Chairperson of the BRICS Business Council Ms Busisiwe Mabuza and the Acting CEO of the South African Tourism, Ms Nomasonto Ndlovu, was meant to, firstly, announce South Africa’s hosting of the Summit on 22-24 August 2023, and to clarify the role the country currently plays as the only African state with BRICS membership.
Secondly, to highlight the economic benefits South Africa’s BRICS membership for the entire continent – even though South Africa is the only African country holding member of BRICS, it represents the aspirations of the entire continent.
Thirdly, to engage collectively on how South Africa and Nigeria, as the two leading economies in Africa, can create a nexus and synergy between the AfCFTA and BRICS in such a way that the two can complement each other.
But most importantly, how BRICS can serve as a feeder to the AfCFTA. Undoubtedly, this event should be counted amongst the key events taking place in the continent on 04th July 2023 since it sought to bring together two biggest economic powers in the continent to chat a way forward in the realization of an everlasting vision for Africa’s prosperity.
Furthermore, the theme for this event was very provocative, “Promoting Regional and Continental Trade through the AfCFTA and BRICS in Africa”. It challenged all stakeholders to think creatively about the concept of partnerships and the significance thereof, as a conduit to Continental prosperity. The key question was – how do we leverage on existing platforms to create beneficial and meaningful partnerships in the continent, making use of BRICS as a conduit. The BRICS formation is a group of leading emerging markets and developing countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Over the past 15 years, this formation has become a force to be reckoned with, offering unique opportunities for BRICS countries to extend and advance their cooperation in ways that meaningfully promote their economic development agenda and that of the global South. Through this formation, South Africa also works towards addressing the triple challenges of inequality, poverty and unemployment through increased intra-BRICS trade, investment, tourism, capacity building, skills, and technology transfers.
Over 17% of South Africa’s exports are going to BRICS member states, while 9% of its total imports are from BRICS. Total South African trade with BRICS reached R702 billion in 2021 from R487 billion in 2017.
Partnership aims to enhance intra-BRICS economic interaction and cooperation, including opportunities for market access and facilitate market inter-linkages, promote mutual trade and investment, and create a business-friendly environment, and diversify trade and investment cooperation that supports value addition.
The BRICS Business Council and the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance bring together important commercial networks vital to broader socio-economic growth and recovery. Given the significance of BRICS to Africa’s developmental agenda, it becomes critical that we create linkages amongst our economies in Africa.
This will help leverage avail opportunities, and also provide space to propose new innovations that are aimed at unlocking bottlenecks confronting the AfCFTA in the implementation of its strategy. On the other hand, the AfCFTA creates a predictable environment for investments by South Africa’s BRICS partners, particularly in infrastructure development.
Regionally, South Africa provides direct access to the rest of the continent and is situated between the East, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. South Africa has many geostrategic and related structural advantages, making it an excellent investment destination and ideal “gateway” partner in the African growth story.
The BRICS countries constitute the largest trading partners of Africa and the largest new (not total) investors. The BRICS investment portfolio in Africa is indeed encouraging and promising. BRICS has nourished Africa’s economic emergence and elevated the continent’s contemporary global relevance. Similarly, South Africa and Nigeria have to create an enabling environment within which BRICS can nourish the AfCFTA to deliver on its mandate.
Furthermore, deliberations by panelists included issues such as dissecting the extent to which South Africa and Nigeria envisioned the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) contributing to the economic growth and development of African nations, and the role of the two continental giants in unlocking opportunities provided by the AfCFTA.
It was also critical to use this platform to somewhat predict the key challenges foreseen in implementing the AfCFTA and how these challenges can be addressed to ensure its success.
Infrastructure development in Africa has been a challenge for years and the nexus between the AfCFTA and BRICS are seen as valuable platforms through which these challenge can be unlocked, and the African nations, including Nigeria and South Africa, can tackle issues of deficit in infrastructure, trade facilitation bottlenecks, and regulatory harmonization to create an enabling environment for seamless trade and investment across borders.
Thankfully, the panel also reflected on how the AfCFTA, working with BRICS, can contribute to addressing the historical imbalances in trade relations between African nations and external partners, including making consideration of some innovative strategies that can be employed to ensure that the benefits of the AfCFTA are distributed equitably among African countries, particularly those with less-developed economies.
From this roundtable, several valuable lessons were shared and critical questions for the 15th BRICS Summit were raised, and these include the following:
– Are there any specific policy or regulatory measures that can be implemented to promote and facilitate business interactions between Nigeria and the BRICS bloc?
– Collaboration between the African Continental Free Trade Area and the BRICS bloc holds significant potential for economic transformation. Accordingly, what are the key areas of convergence between the AfCFTA and BRICS initiatives that can be explored to foster sustainable economic development, technology transfer, and innovation across Africa?
– As the two biggest economy in Africa, excluding Egypt, what is the role of Nigeria and South Africa in fostering collaborations between the African Free Trade Area and the BRICS bloc, and if there are any specific policy measures or institutional frameworks that can be established to facilitate cooperation, knowledge-sharing, and capacity-building between African nations and BRICS countries?
– African Free Trade Area and the BRICS bloc should work together to address common developmental challenges faced by African nations, such as infrastructure development and industrialization – are there any successful case studies or models from other regions that can be emulated to accelerate the achievement of these developmental goals within Africa?
– What strategies can be employed to promote people-to-people exchanges, cultural diplomacy, and tourism collaborations between African nations and BRICS countries and how can these interactions contribute to mutual understanding, foster social cohesion, and create new opportunities for economic growth and sustainable development?
– How do African countries identify the key factors that contribute to successful collaborations and partnerships between businesses within Africa and those in the BRICS bloc, and if there are any best practices that can be shared, such as leveraging technology, fostering innovation ecosystems, or establishing cross-border investment and joint ventures?
– How can governments, business associations, and educational institutions work together to provide the necessary support, mentorship, and skills development programs to empower African entrepreneurs and SMEs in taking advantage of the opportunities arising from the AfCFTA and the BRICS bloc?
– With the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area and the increasing collaboration with the BRICS bloc, what potential implications might there be for tax policies and frameworks in African nations, and how can tax systems be optimized to support trade and investment within these frameworks while ensuring fair and sustainable revenue generation for governments?
– What opportunities can be explored to boost intra-African tourism, increase tourist arrivals BRICS countries, and encourage cultural exchanges among nations?
This list of questions is not exhaustive but critical in addressing and shaping the operational methodology of the partnership between the AfCFTA and BRICS. If the two bodies are to work together, there is a need to establish appropriate governance systems and structures to harmonize the mutually inclusive benefits of both to each other. It is necessary to move from a premise of creating a mutually beneficial relationship rather than dependency or a servant master relationship in which the AfCFTA relies solely on what BRICS has to offer without contributing any significant value to the partnership. Accordingly, whilst BRICS will deliver countries of the South or emerging economies to the AfCFTA, the latter should deliver countries of the continent to the BRICS formation.