Category: Industry

The African Development Bank Group and the Islamic Development Bank signed, on February 16, 2023, a Joint Partnership Action Plan for the development of the pharmaceutical industry in their African member countries. The plan offers a new framework for strengthened cooperation and mutual development priorities, with a strong emphasis on boosting the continent’s health defense systems.

“The plan covers lending to public and private sector projects and pharmaceutical development projects using a regional approach”

“The Joint Action Plan enables both institutions to grow a shared pipeline of bankable projects around key complementary themes to which each institution would bring their comparative advantage. The plan covers lending to public and private sector projects and pharmaceutical development projects using a regional approach,” AfDB said in a statement.

The African Development Bank Group and the Islamic Development Bank will also cooperate on the organization of a global Pharmaceutical Business Forum in May 2023 at the General Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank. The event will bring together key pharmaceutical sector industry captains, including big pharma companies, continental, regional and governmental regulatory agencies, and technology transfer entities. The gathering will deliberate on business opportunities, vaccine off-take agreements, pharmaceutical technology transfer agreements and project preparation resources, among other topics.

“Although some African countries such as Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia and Morocco produce medicines and cover between 70% and 80% of their needs, more than 80% of pharmaceutical and medical products are imported into the continent”

It should be noted that Africa currently produces only 3% of the world’s pharmaceuticals (375 manufacturers in 37 African countries, compared with 5,000 in China, for example), according to the consultancy firm Morgan Philips. “Yet 25% of the world’s patients, all diseases combined, are African. The Zika pandemic has exposed the weaknesses of the African pharmaceutical industry. According to the United Nations, “Africa’s capacity to produce and supply the essential drugs and personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to contain the pandemic is inadequate”. Although some African countries, such as Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia and Morocco, produce medicines and cover between 70% and 80% of their needs, more than 80% of the continent’s pharmaceutical and medical products are imported, mainly from China or India, making it difficult to develop and establish local production.

Hence the need to invest in the sector. Access to affordable, quality medicines and, above all, the establishment of appropriate public policies and public-private partnerships are all necessary factors for developing the sector’s growth potential in Africa.

In 2007, the African Union Development Agency – AUDA-NEPAD – addressed this issue by launching a comprehensive “Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa”, supported by African Union countries. But it was not until 2012 that the plan was accompanied by measures and “technical solutions”.

“Public institutions and private companies need to work together, especially on regulations, which are poorly overseen, leading to the development of illegal submarkets”

With Africa’s population exploding and projected to grow over the next twenty years, private sector involvement once again appears to be the alternative to existing gaps. In a market that is largely made up of “small, fragmented markets” and “weak regulatory frameworks”, Morgan Philipps notes that no single company could produce, supply and export drugs and other medical products today. “This is why public institutions and private companies need to work together, especially on regulations, which are poorly overseen, leading to the development of illegal sub-markets. 60% of the medicines consumed in Africa are counterfeit or diverted from legitimate supplies.

In this respect, the African Continental Free Trade Area also appears to be an opportunity for the development of an African pharmaceutical industry and access to healthcare for all. “Africa should focus on integrated markets and implement policies to facilitate intra-African trade, some of which have already been implemented thanks to the AfCFTA, the firm recommends. The right policies, increased investment and harmonization of regulatory systems could enable Africa to produce and manufacture its own medicines in the future.”

Meanwhile, such initiatives as the establishment of the African Medicines Agency in Rwanda in 2021 should be replicated.

Source: Africa News Agency

Angolan President João Lourenço inaugurated Wednesday the 5th edition of “Expo-Indústria/2023”, an event to take place from March 29 March to April 1 at Luanda/Bengo Special Economic Zone (ZEE).

The event is expected to be attended by over 230 companies, a figure that is higher than the previous edition held in 2019, when it had a three-year interruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 5th edition of Expo-Industry/2023 will bring together, among various sectors, the manufacturing industry, engineering and construction, as well as food industry and agribusiness.

The aim of the event is for industries to increase employment and improve living conditions of the population and leverage new partnerships and businesses.

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Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)

The real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate for the Angolan manufacturing industry registered, in the period from 2018 to 2022, a cumulative 7.7%, with greater emphasis on the last year.

The information was provided this Wednesday by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, during the opening ceremony of the Industrial Fair's 5th Edition, which takes place under the motto “It is possible for us to walk together”.

According to the Angolan Head of State, the figure represents a growth of around 6%, surpassing the projection foreseen in the 2022 General State Budget (OGE).

At the exhibition taking place in the Special Economic Zone (ZEE), in the Luanda Municipality of Viana, in Luanda, President João Lourenço stated that over 200 new projects were approved and implemented in the same period.

These are high-impact ventures in the field of manufacturing industry, distributed across the country's 18 provinces, in several subsectors of activities.

According to the holder of the Executive Power, the action resulted in over ten thousand jobs, with greater emphasis on the food sector, having highlighted that it is a commitment by the Executive to increase industrial production, to ensure self-sufficiency in essential goods of consumption.

The President of the Republic considered it fundamental to continue to stimulate and boost the increase in national production in order to reduce prices, imports and increase exports.

With that, he said, the country will be able to face the competitiveness arising from Angola's adherence to the protocols of the SADC Free Trade Area, the African Continental and the Tripartite Free Trade Area.

In his speech, João Lourenço called for an organized, systematic and persistent effort to attract national and foreign private investment, in order to place the country on the path of industrialization established by SADC.

For the Angolan statesman, this task is not an easy one, as competition between countries to attract foreign direct investment is quite strong.

It is notorious the effort that the country has been making in recent years in increasing and improving the infrastructure to support industry and the economy as a whole.

Improved electricity supply

In front of exhibitors and businesspeople, President João Lourenço noted that there has been, in recent years, a considerable increase in the supply of electricity from hydroelectric and photovoltaic production sources.

He said that the aforementioned increase consequently reduced the production of electricity from thermal sources (pollutants) and that increase the price of the product (energy) sold to domestic and business consumers.

Within the framework of improving the supply of electricity, President João Lourenço underlined the fact that the Executive is investing in the construction of transport lines.

On the occasion, the Head of State said that it was energy produced in the Lower Kwanza basin, namely in Kapanda, Laúca and Cambambe, as well as in the Soyo Combined Cycle, in Zaire Province.

“All of them are already interconnected, through the National Transport Network, to take this available capacity to the East, Southeast and South of the country”, informed the President of the Republic.

The holder of executive power added that one of the ideas of the project is to connect the national network to the provinces of Lunda Sul, Lunda Norte, Moxico, Cuando Cubango, Huíla, Cunene and Namibe.

Water sector

President João Lourenço announced that important investments are also scheduled in the water sectors, all over the country.

He stated that for Luanda, the country's main industrial centre, the Bita and Quilonga projects are being implemented which should improve the water supply to the Angolan capital.

As for the current context of the national manufacturing industry, the Angolan statesman said that it offers many challenges, opportunities but also constraints.

Angola continues to mark very precise steps in its process of opening up to the outside world, looking for ways to diversify the economy by substituting imports, promoting exports, reducing the country's dependence on the oil sector.

Around 230 companies are taking part in the Industrial fair/2023 5th edition, in the Special Economic Zone (ZEE) Luanda-Bengo, until the 1st of April.

The transformation industry, engineering and civil construction, as well as the food industry and agribusiness are some of the sectors present in the sample that has national and foreign exhibitors.

The “Expo-Industria” (Expo Industry) event is the biggest industrial showcase in Angola and aims to stimulate investment in national industry, within the scope of the strategy of diversifying the economy, substituting imports, increasing exports, reducing unemployment and poverty.

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Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)