Business
Getting Rich the Hard Way
Morocco has attracted a Renault production line to the Tanger Med site. The government’s attention to the needs of car producers – in particular the presence of a dense network of secondary and tertiary suppliers – the creation of a bespoke skills institute and a world-class port were critical in attracting the French company.
Rabat has take the industrial baton from Tunis in recent years, and the government runs an effective export promotion agency, called Maroc Export. “We are very jealous about what the Moroccans have, the help and assistance from their government,” says Loukil. “In fact, that’s what pushed us to buy a company in Morocco – similar to MIG – to get an industrial base in Morocco and take advantage of what it is giving to its industrial units.”
The technopole model
Loukil says that by focusing on skills and education African countries might be able to avoid Mexico’s problems and help to foster local companies that grow up to be serious contenders. “The technopoles built in Sousse and elsewhere are what the Moroccans have copied today. And it was done with the help of the French. If you go to Toulouse, around the Airbus industry, there are three technopoles, which is what Tunisia itself tried to copy.”
Harnessing the diaspora and those educated abroad was important for China’s stratospheric rise and is also bringing similar strength back into Africa. Kola Karim, chief executive of Shoreline Natural Resources, a Nigerian oil company, says the global financial crisis actually helped in this regard: “A lot of these guys in banking and engineering who lost their jobs were despondent.
He added, “But at that moment, opportunity started rearing its head here, and they thought, ‘Hey, the salaries are not that bad, and we are at home.” He also advised, “That created a wave of talented people heading home to the continent. We have sucked up that expertise and paired them with the local boys to transfer those talents.”
Likewise, MIG Engineering, an affiliate of MIG, helps to bring new ideas and technology into the company and employs graduates from foreign engineering schools. And as the private sector adds skills, governments will need to do the same. For Helen Hai, who set up the Huajian shoe factory in Ethiopia, the rigors of industrial policy require waking up early in the morning. Even if you have enlightened ministers who want to drive industrialization, it is important to have support at all levels.
“You need people at the operational level too,” says Hai. “It’s not going to be the minister sitting at the port clearing the goods.” Ultimately, it in is these practical realities that proactive governments will live and die in their efforts to rekindle Africa’s manufacturing sector. But a careful combination of slowly phased-out protection, support for local products and an effort to promote upskilling throughout the economy may just help African countries get rich
Copyright The Africa Report 2014
