African adventure appealing to West Midlands businesses
DOZENS of businesses from the West Midlands region are on their way to exporting to Sub-Saharan Africa after experts travelled to the UK to offer specialist advice.
Companies ranging from technology and education to construction took part in a Meet The Experts event, organised by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) West Midlands.
Commercial officers and specialists from six of the 44 states of Sub-Saharan Africa – Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria – were all on hand to offer one-to-one advice to companies looking to export to the countries for the first time or that are hoping to expand their reach in the African continent.
Advice on exporting to a further six African markets was also available via Skype.
More than 100 one-to-one meetings took place at the event at Bescot Stadium in Walsall as businesses sought advice from commercial officers from UKTI, bilateral and overseas British Chambers of Commerce and London-based High Commission staff, as well as intellectual property, legal, and funding experts.
Marina McGoldrick, from Birmingham-based leadership and development firm ORD, said after finding success in Europe, it is now preparing to expand into Africa.
“There’s a lot of potential in Africa, although it is very early days for us,” she said. “We’re looking at what infrastructure we need to have in place or if we should create partnerships out there.”
Jules Ralston, director of digital marketing consultants DigioTeric, said she hoped to explore further opportunities in Tanzania for its education and training projects.
“We already work in a number of African countries but we are looking to branch out. I’m very excited by the opportunities out there and hope I can start to build up new relationships in Tanzania and Uganda,” she said.
Delegates heard that Sub-Saharan African offers myriad opportunities for UK businesses from oil and gas, infrastructure, and technology to education, logistics and energy.
They were also told that GDP is projected to grow on average by almost 6% in 2016 and that six of the world’s ten fastest growing economies since 2005 have been African.
Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is set to more than double by 2050 and the workforce will grow by 830m.
Stefan Szabo, head of international trade, Black Country, said: “It was great to see so many businesses from our region actively looking to export their goods and services to the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“There are challenges, of course, in these countries and it takes time to build up trusted relationships, but there are so many openings for British companies because products made here are very much sought after.
“We’re looking forward to seeing the contacts that were made today developing so that many more businesses from our region can successfully export to their target countries.”
