The continental and nation-branding challenge of Africa

An interesting article published on Semafor Africa raises the problem of the low brand awareness of African brands by Africans and their general distrust towards them. In October 2021 we published on our blog a post where we argued that it is time for Africa to develop a collective trademark system capable to raise the visibility of African brands both a continental that extra-continental level. Semafor notes that a study on the 100 brands that are most-admired in Africa shows that 80% of them are actually extra-continental brands, concluding that Africans generally prefer foreign-made to local made products and services. Since brands are a vector of a country's image and identity, this translates into a poor visibility of those countries where such products and services are made, and of Africa in general.

The negative perception of African products by Africans is pointed out also by a recent publication from AfCFTA Dialogues, a platform dedicated to promoting awareness and understanding of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The study highlights that Africans generally consider African goods less safe and of lower standard compared to those imported from extra-African countries. However, not everything can be painted with the same brush, because there are also some pan-African success stories, such as the South African telecommunications group MTN, the Nigerian industrial giant Dangote, Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya's Safaricom M-Pesa. Another case in point is Scent of Africa, which is gradually emerging as a case of a successful African brand that targets a niche market (the luxury segment), promoting high-end African parfums. This Ghana-based company has developed a strong presence in several African leading markets, recording sales growth of approximately 25% in 2024.

All the above brands, Semafor notes, have the potential to trigger a transformative impact on their home nations’ image, as well as on the wider perception of Africa. The problem is that they are still few. It is therefore time for African countries to come together, under the auspices of the African Union, and develop a framework to drive a brand-led “Made in Africa” agenda. It is in Africa’s interests to build resilient, competitive, and independent continental and country brands, the article concludes, otherwise the goods and services that will benefit from the continental single market will not be the African ones, but once again, foreign ones.

The article cites as an example of such framework the 1933 US Buy American Act, which requires that at least 50% of all procurement by the US government and its agencies must be originating from the US. Similarly, in July 2023, the African Business Council (AFBC), during the 14th African Union High Level Private Sector Forum, proposed to develop a “Buy Africa” regulation at continental level, mandating African States to allocate 40% of government procurements to African-owned businesses. The proposal builds on previous initiatives started by countries like Tanzania, South Africa and Kenya. Kenya, for instance, in 2013 launched the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities program, which reserves 30 percent of public procurement opportunities to youths, women and persons with disabilities, while Tanzania and South Africa reserve respectively 30% and 25% of public procurement to women-owned businesses.

However, adopting such regulation would be problematic in Africa, as there are no regional or continental institutions capable of enacting legally binding regulations that African States would be obliged to implement. Even Directives adopted by the African Union Heads of States and Government - the highest decision-making forum of the AU - are frequently disregarded by member States. An example is the Decision of the Heads of State and Government AU/Dec.161 (VIII) of 2007, which mandates AU states to invest at least 1% of their GDP in research and development. The AUDA-NEPAD Second Continental report on the implementation of Agenda 2063 reveals that in 2021 the share of research and development expenditure as a proportion of GDP of African States was only 0.45%, less than half of the target set by the AU Summit 14 years before. Another example is the committment assumed by the AU Summit at the Niamey Industrialization and Economic Diversification Summit of 25 November 2022 to allocate a minimum of 5 - 10% of the national budget to industrial development, objective that also has not been achieved. This means that regulatory tools adopted by continental institutions have more of a "moral" value than a "legal" one. The situation is no different at the level of African Regional Economic Communities (RECs).

Therefore, rather than aiming for the adoption of continental or regional regulations that would risk remaining only on paper, it would be more appropriate to develop voluntary certification schemes, where continental or regional agencies made up of independent experts would be responsible to assess the eligibility of businesses to affix on their products a “made in Africa” (or similar regional) label that would guarantee on the African orgin and the quality of such goods. In our post we have documented some cases from which Africa can draw inspiration, like the experience of Russia, that could be a good practice to learn from.