The Buzz: Africa’s Growing Supply Chain Influence

Intro/Outro (00:02):

Welcome to Supply Chain Now, the number one voice of supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insights, and real supply chain leadership from across the globe. One conversation at a time.

Yaseen Ahmid (00:14):

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening wherever you’re joining us from. And welcome to The Buzz powered by our friends from Altium. I’m Yasin Ahmed, and today it’s a South African double act because I’m joined by my co-host, Michael. Scott is on the road today and we’ve been asked to step in and share our insights. And we’ve got a full hour ahead of us today. We’ll react to Scott’s with that said, talk about why Africa matters to every supply chain on this call, and then unpack four stories from across the continent, from your Halloween candy all the way to the railway, carrying your metals in your EV. And as we go, drop a comment, tell us where you’re tuning in from. But before we dive in, let’s do some quick introductions starting with myself. So my name is Yasin. I’m from Johannesburg, South Africa, and I came to the US to study supply chain at Drexel in Philadelphia.

(01:05):

I went on to do management consulting with Connie in Johannesburg across mining, oil and gas, and now I’m finishing my master’s degree in sustainability management at Columbia. I’m graduating in December, very excited. And I chose the US because it’s where supply chain and the discipline grew up. You learn fastest where the scale is, and I want to take these learnings back home and contribute to the continent of Africa and grow the network that belongs. So Michael, over to you.

Michael J. Olivier (01:35):

Thank you. I’m so excited for this. So my name is Michael Oderfield. I’m from Cape Town, South Africa, but also spent two years in Johannesburg, South Africa at the African Leadership Academy. And this is really where my passion for the African continent came. So I love supply chain not as much as Yasin. So I’m more on the entrepreneurship and innovation side. And so even at the African Leadership Academy, I was very involved in entrepreneurial leadership programs. And that is what kind of brought me to the United States is a big innovation culture year. A lot of companies that have started and some people see it almost as the center for innovation. And so for me, I love the startup ecosystem here and I’ve always wanted to bring it to South Africa, hence why I came to the United States to study. I’m currently doing a major in management with a focus in entrepreneurship and innovation.

(02:21):

I also did accounting for a while and did an internship at EY Ernest & Young for two summers my sophomore year and my junior year summer. And I actually worked with a med tech manufacturing firm based in Japan, but globally. So also interested in global supply chains and excited to see how I can learn from the US economy, the global economy, and then bring in what I learned from here onto the African continent, specifically starting with South Africa.

Yaseen Ahmid (02:48):

Like you mentioned, Michael, super excited for our session today. Two South Africans with a whole hour to cover a very exciting continent. So let’s get into it. But where better to start than Scott’s newsletter with that said, so we had some fantastic stories. If you haven’t subscribed yet, it’s available on LinkedIn and Trishem and Amanda will drop the link in chat, the most recent edition. But Edition 189 covers a lot of ground from US shoppers who haven’t done spending to Europe’s EV surge. So it’s also getting into AI and how serious security and quantum computing are really taking a swing at earth metals. But given my mining background, you can probably guess which story I’m picking out of today’s with that said. According to Fox Business Pascal, US rare earth and ribbon systems are exploring whether quantum computing AI and advanced chemical testing can improve the way rare earths are separated and processed.

(03:49):

And Pascal’s CEO, Wassiq Bukari, suggested that the technology could increase how much usable material you can recover from the same rock by a factor of two, three, or even 10, which matters dramatically because as rare earths go into the magnets inside EVs, wind turbines, electronics, and defense systems, the hardest part has never been digging them up. It’s about separating and processing them, which exactly is where China dominates this process in the supply chain. And Scott nailed it in one line, which is that sometimes technology can change the economics of the supply you already have. And you’ll see in the podcast today that this is where Africa comes in. We as a continent of Africa have very rare earth deposits from Angola to Malawi to South Africa where Michael and I grew up. But like most of our metals, they tend to leave the continent as ore and as concentrate so the value gets added somewhere else.

(04:49):

So what does it mean if technology like this kind of prevails and provides cheaper and cleaner processing power for the continent? So in fact, back home in Palo Bora in Limpopo, Rainbow Rare Earths is working to recover rare earths from phosphogypsin, which is a waste product from phosphorousic acid production. And it’s still in its very early feasibility stages. But to Scott’s point in this most recent, with that said, new value from material is already sitting there. We’re just trying to figure out how we can capture that value. So that’s my pick, Michael, but what caught your attention?

Michael J. Olivier (05:27):

Yeah, so I mean I love this topic just because I love bringing Africa to the map, bringing it up to date with the rest of the world. Something that obviously caught my attention was the whole big topic of AI. So a little bit of a backstory, I’m actually doing a research in data infrastructure and a lot of it is actually the infrastructure around artificial intelligence. But something that really, really caught my attention lately is actually another topic that is not so prevalent, I think where people don’t bring up a lot, but it’s cybersecurity. And so I thought in this article of Wha That Said, when they brought up the topic of the KPMG research, so AI gets serious about cybersecurity. So only 8% of companies are experimenting with AI use, AI-assisted cyber defenses. And so that was an interesting statistic for me just in terms of AI adoption is increasing, but where does the role of AI cybersecurity come in?

(06:19):

And so among a lot of companies that are adopting AI tools within their company, they are generating returns and the figure is rising to about 58% of companies that are adopting single returns. 86% of organizations are adapting their cybersecurity operating models to address AI related threats and almost 40% are developing or using multi-agent AI systems. And so what was really interesting for me is how he touched in the article that AI adoption and AI maturity are not the same thing. So a company can deploy AI tools across the operations without having this governance and using them responsibly. And so more automation and as people are adopting more and more, as you can see is higher adoption, it also creates more vulnerabilities. And so human oversight is still going to be very, very essential, but it’s also catching up cybersecurity protocols as AI systems accelerate decision making, as companies use it more.

(07:14):

There’s this need for accountability for areas, security around it and dealing with operational failures. I

Yaseen Ahmid (07:22):

Think you bring up a really valuable point there because at the same time, the question comes back to the continent of Africa. So by 2050, Africa is going to hold almost a quarter of the world’s working age population. And I know that the two of us had discussed a recent UN Commission for Africa piece, which kind of questions whether AI is really creating jobs in Africa or whether it’s going to leapfrog these kinds of opportunities that exist back home on the continent and whether the skills and the guardrails grow alongside it. So I think you brought something up really interestingly about maturity and adoption. Any other thoughts there?

Michael J. Olivier (08:02):

I mean, just touching on that, I think moving fast is valuable. Having automation is valuable, but moving fast without those guardrails can get very expensive and disastrous. So while it is important that innovation is being pushed, and I think even thinking about bringing it to the African continent as well, we also do have to be mindful of what are the guardrails, what are the necessarily accountability protocols, the governance needed, the human oversight to make sure that we have mature markets and that we are actually benefiting best from these innovations.

Yaseen Ahmid (08:33):

Yep. I couldn’t have said that better. And I think we can obviously relate to all of the big AI firms that have been calling for self-regulation or not self-regulation by state and federal regulation for the models that they’re developing. But those are some excellent points there, Michael. I think taking the conversation, I know that today we wanted to take a very strong Africa focus, the two of us coming from South Africa, but I think a question that some of the audience members are probably asking is why should a supply chain leader in Atlanta or Chicago care about Africa? At least for me, the answer is coming in three parts. So it depends on what is under the ground, what grows on top of the ground and who lives in it. So if we look at what starts under the ground, we look at the Congo, which mined about 74% of the world’s cobalts in 2025.

(09:28):

And according to the US geological survey, cobalt goes into batteries like in EVs and phones. So if you’re holding a phone right now, there’s a good chance that a piece of Africa is in your hand. Then there’s obviously the what grows on top of it, which we’ll be getting later into the conversation. So Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana grow almost 60% of the world’s cocoa, and Ethiopia earned a record $3 billion from coffee exports in the last fiscal year. So your afternoon chocolate very likely starts in Africa and your morning coffee might also start in Africa too. And then finally there’s, like we discussed previously, who lives on the continent. And by 2050, more than one in four people on earth will be African. So according to the UN Economic Commission from Africa, that’s tomorrow’s workforce and it’s also tomorrow’s customers. So Michael, I know that we had discussed that UNDP Africa piece from the UN General Assembly, which was written by Asata Deh.

(10:30):

One line that really stood out to me there was that the continent is no longer entering global conversations as a recipient of solutions. What do you think? Do you think that that matches what we’re seeing on the ground?

Michael J. Olivier (10:42):

Not entirely. I think there is a positive shift. So I think there has been a shift. I think what this really showed and what UNDP really showed was that there’s an important shift in how we think about the continent. So for decades, we’ve always seen Africa through the lens of what it lacks, whether that’s infrastructure, capital, access to technology. But the more interesting question is what does Africa now have to offer to the world? And there is this exploration of entrepreneurial talent, growing consumer markets, some of the most important natural resources on the planet, like you were saying, the growing population. And this excites me to see that African markets are being brought onto the table. But I think with a lot of these conferences, sometimes there’s a lot of talk and a lot of optimism and it’s kind of like to say, okay, Africa plays this role in maturing the global market.

(11:33):

And there’s this talk of participation, but actually seeing that on the ground is still not so much there. I don’t see a lot of collaboration even between African countries. I think a lot of times there’s a lot of talk about it and there’s a lot of hope about it and are these plans that are placed, these plans that are presented, but actually seeing it on the ground, not so much. I think even with South Africa, we still collaborate with a lot of countries outside of Africa, like with the European Union visiting, but we’re not seeing a lot of collaboration between South Africa and other countries on the continent. So I think while there is hope, and I think it’s awful statement, and I think the intention is quite good, I don’t think it’s quite being implemented as widely as it’s being spoken of.

Yaseen Ahmid (12:18):

I agree. But on the contrary, we’ve got the formation of institutions like the African Development Bank. We’ve got the Africa Free Trade Agreement. Most recently, we saw the formation of a powerhouse oil refinery, an IPO from a very famous Nigerian Alico Dangote. But I think building on that, the article that we discussed or the UNDP report that we discussed, the author suggests and asks a question that every investor and every buyer should be asking, which is who really captures the value when African resources, data, talent and ideas enter global markets? I think for me at least that’s the whole game. So that’s keeping more of the value on the continent by processing such minerals, making the products and running the logistics. And I know that Scott and I have had some sessions in the past talking about how do we develop models that retain and uplift talent on the continent, but these are questions that we’ve been asking about localization, beneficiation, and I think that you brought up some really, really, really valuable points there, Michael.

(13:30):

But I think heading into the second portion of the show, let’s take a look at four stories from across the continent. But first, let’s share this message from Scott and our friends from Altium.

Scott Luton (13:44):

We’re all about sharing resources, folks, and we also have talked about the electronic supply chain and how that can just give you headaches everywhere. Well, folks, if your electronics team is still coordinating design work through email threads, spreadsheet bombs, and zip file attachments, let me tell you, there’s a much better way. Altium Agile Teams gives multidisciplinary engineering teams, think electrical, mechanical, supply chain, manufacturing. It gives them all one connected workspace without slowing anybody down. We’re talking live bomb intelligence so you can catch those component risks before they become production delays, real-time design visibility so managers aren’t stuck scheduling status meetings just to find out where things stand. They see what structured collaboration looks like. You can learn more at altium agile teams@altium.com/agile/teams. And to make it really easy, Trisha dropping a link right there in the chat.

Yaseen Ahmid (14:40):

Welcome back to the buzz powered by Altium. Before the break, Michael and I talked about Africa moving from receiving solutions to providing them. So let’s get into a variety of topics that show exactly that. We’ve got four very, very exciting stories from four corners of the continent. West Africa’s Cocoa, a drone network in Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco’s car factories, and a railway carrying the metals in your EVs. So I’ll unpack each one and then hand over to Michael so the comments can keep coming. Let’s start with something sweet. Michael, do you have a favorite chocolate? Do you have a favorite candy?

Michael J. Olivier (15:15):

This is a good one. I mean, I love chocolate, all kinds of chocolate. I think I do. My favorite is probably cookies and cream. Well, I’m used to Cadbury. Now that I’m in the US, I’ve started getting used to Hershey. I don’t think I want to offend the listeners too much for saying what’s my favorite, but okay, I’ll be a little honest. I think it’s Cadbury. Sorry Hershey.

Yaseen Ahmid (15:34):

Cadbury will always, I think if there’s anyone that’s on the call right now, you definitely have to try and get a Cadbury chocolate from a friend in the UK, unmatched chocolate. But I think that Hershey does do the job. I know that the two of us had discussed that there’s some people out there that prefer to celebrate Halloween over Christmas, which we both looked at each other and said, I don’t know if that’s true, but…

Michael J. Olivier (15:59):

Yeah, I think actually because we are in October and Halloween’s coming up in the US, I’ve never seen Halloween… I heard someone say, “I love Halloween more than Christmas,” and I was stunned. But once they started explaining, I started kind of seeing it with the dressing up, the candy. I was like, “Okay.” But coming from South Africa, we don’t have as big of a Halloween culture. Not at all. But I’m excited to speak about chocolates because if there is any favorite candy that I do have, it is chocolate. I think this is a very, very relevant topic when it comes to the African continent being one of the biggest producers of cocoa, cacao, however you say it. I’m going to hand it over back to Yasin to yourself.

Yaseen Ahmid (16:39):

This is a short commentary piece from Bazinga, just pulling this up onto the screen. So cocoa crashed this year, so why is your Halloween candy still this pricey? And the article essentially talks about the fact that you have to ask where candy starts. So Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana grow almost 60% of the world’s cocoa, and prices have been on a roller coaster. So in late 2024, cocoa topped $10,000 a ton, and by April this year it had fallen to about $2,800. And by mid-September, it had climbed up to about $5,700. So what’s driving this rebound in Ghana is kind of a crop fall, right? So from 18% to 38%, between 470 to 620 tons against 760 tons last season. So it’s down to aging trees, disease, heavy rains, and pollination failure that they have not seen in the past 20 years. So meanwhile, shoppers in the US have been feeling it for years.

(17:46):

The average US chocolate bar went from $2.50 in 2021 to $3.45 in 2025. And today, a pound of chocolate candy costs about $8 against its previous $6 non-chocolate candies, which Michael is not a big fan of. So the question is why did the crash actually reach the shelf? And I’m sure a lot of you on the call can say, “Well, it’s supply chain a 101,” but it’s the fact that manufacturers have to hedge against and buy cocoa months ahead, which means that they’re still working through cocoa that they’ve nearly bought at the top. So yeah, with all of that pressure pushing the industry to look for alternatives, it brings me over to Michael, who’s also flagged a lab-grown cocoa producer called Paritus, which is based out of California. So Michael, want to share a bit more about this new invention?

Michael J. Olivier (18:39):

So I mean, lab-grown diamonds, lab-grown meats are new concept, but in a nutshell, they’re looking for alternatives to the supply chain. So when they are hits to supply of cacao, like in Ghana, in Cot d’Ivoire when there’s knocks, they still want to provide for the demand that is in the market. And so Lamgo cocao has become more prevalent now. So California, they call to the plant to commercialize cell culture chocolate in the US. And what interests me about this is what impact this will then have on farmers in Africa where this is a big part of the economy. Cote d’Ivoire in Ghana, collectively, they export about 60% of the total production of cacao to the world. And so while this could be good for supply chains that there’s alternatives, it also begs the question, what if these alternatives are what becomes the norm for the supply chain?

(19:33):

What then happens to suppliers on the African continent? And it’s also about African countries participating in more than just the primary exports of cacao as well. And so that just begs the question, I think that is something that was just really curious for me is the lab-grown cacao, is it going to be something that would consumers even recognize the difference between lab-grown cacao or cacao that are exported from the African continent? And if that is the case, what opportunities or threats does that impose for farmers on the African continent?

Yaseen Ahmid (20:06):

I think another point to interject is what are some of the inputs? Is there higher energy cost to produce this lab-grown cocoa? What are the water inputs? Those are all kinds of questions that we need to ask in the grander scheme of sustainability too, right?

Michael J. Olivier (20:23):

Yeah.

Yaseen Ahmid (20:24):

Staying on Cote d’Ivoire, let’s see what we can move onto here, which is another story from the continent of Africa, which is Zipline Inc’s Cote d’Ivoire deal to expand drone delivery. This is a really exciting piece here. So it involves Zipline, which is another Californian company that specifically manufactures drones and has signed an eight-year contract with the Ivorian government that adds nine drone hubs to one that already runs there, covering about 12 million people in the region or roughly one third of the country. And this isn’t a pilot on a whiteboard because between 2023 and 2026, Zipline delivered nearly four million medical products in Cote d’Ivoire, mostly vaccines and blood products, to more than 200 health centers northwest of Abhijan. What I like to see from this story, Michael, is clearly how the costs are split. So the government covers the operations, meaning things like pharmacy grade warehousing, cold chain, digital tracking and deliveries themselves are covered by the government, while the US government supplies a $150 million grant, which was approved in 2025, which funds the build out of the infrastructure.

(21:40):

They have plans to get Nigeria on the map next with an additional 12 hubs planned, and that will encompass and kind of service 110 million people by 2028. So the supply chain lens here is that Africa is a proving ground, and I think that it’s really exciting to see that Zipline started in Rwanda back in 2016 and currently drops Walmart orders in Dallas, Fort Worth area. So they’re servicing American clients, they’re now servicing clients in Africa. So it’s a model that proves that Africa is now landing in American backyards, which means that innovation is flowing from Africa to the US rather than the other way around. So it reminds me of a piece that we discussed another day too, Michael, which was that WhatsApp is kind of being built out as an operating system for African businesses. So my question to you is what kind of other African workarounds should US supply chain teams be studying at this moment in time?

Michael J. Olivier (22:42):

I think what we should be studying is how African entrepreneurs respond to different problems even on the continent. So I would say innovations that come from the United States are gay. They’re gay because they work in the US context, but I think the African continent is very different. I think South Africa specifically. There is to some extent, I would say, almost like a resource perception of where we don’t have as much resource. And I mean, infrastructure is not as developed as the rest of the world, but there’s a saying in South Africa, a which just means… I guess it translates to a farming system, but the way I see it is the resilience of a lot of African entrepreneurs. And I think even with WhatsApp, even though we don’t have the same infrastructure, we don’t have the same level of technology or adoption of technology, we still make very well great use of what we do have.

(23:27):

So WhatsApp is very cost-effective way of communicating, costs almost nothing, but African entrepreneurs are still making the most of it. And I think even with Zipline, a curiosity that I also have before we go into this new topic is just it’s great when these innovations come to the African continent and we prove that it works and it’s kind of a proving ground. I think what I would like to see and where you will really see even from the UNGA, how you can really see the implementation of innovation on the African continent is when that is coming from African entrepreneurs themselves. So there’s proof that it works. I think the question is how can we get a bigger culture of that actually being started on the African continent and what are the barriers for that? And just before we go into this topic, I’m just curious to see, because you have worked also I think more on the continent.

(24:13):

I think for me it’s more aspirational. I’m looking forward to working on the continent and kind of understanding it, but for you that have worked with businesses in South Africa that have worked throughout the continent, what do you think are the barriers for in-house entrepreneurs to build these innovations and technologies if we already know it works and if we’re having external startups coming to South Africa doing it, what is stopping local entrepreneurs from?

Yaseen Ahmid (24:39):

I think it’s a really great question that you bring because I think inherently you brought that excellent one-liner, which is the resilience. I think that tough times create innovations and we’ve seen that throughout the continent of Africa. I’m taking a class right now at the business school at Columbia. It’s focused on Africa and doing business in Africa, but the session focused on the digital payments, the digital payments landscape in and throughout Africa. I think to answer your question about the barriers to entry, I think it’s financing. It’s financing, it’s talent, and it’s adoption of these solutions. I think I’m very confident that as time progresses and as the continent starts to become more educated and closer to Western and Eastern ways of doing business and incorporation of both, I’m very confident with some of these innovations and how there is a strong sense of entrepreneurship and self-beneficiation on the continent.

(25:38):

So yeah, I think my favorite mobile kind of payment platform is a company called MPESO, which is based in Kenya, and it’s kind of shown the world that you don’t need a bank branch, a physical location to move money. So to your question about infrastructure and some of the other topics that we’ve discussed, Africans always find a way to build around it, then we always find a way to innovate. And that kind of brings us to the next article here, which is out of Morocco. We are talking about how Morocco has quietly become Europe’s car factory next door. So let me just pull this down over here. For the first eight months of this year, it’s exported close to 116 billion DRAMs of automotive products, which constitutes or is close to about $12 billion of automotive products. So when you look at that number, it’s really about what’s inside the number.

(26:32):

So wiring harnesses came in at about 44.8 billion DRAMs, which is up 14%. Assembled vehicles up 19%, and exterior parts grew fastest at all, which is about 44%. So for a US audience, what does this mean? So the easiest way to think about it is that Morocco is closest to Europe. Similarly, like how Mexico is closest to the US, it’s nearshoring next door because the straits of Gibraltar, Morocco sits about 14 kilometers from Spain, and that’s about nine miles. So if you’re in the US and as you like to nearshore and bring your manufacturing closer, like in Mexico, it’s a similar situation like how Europe is using Morocco as a manufacturing hub. So Michael, I think we as South Africans know this industry very well because South Africa has built cars for export for decades. So I think my question to you is what can we learn from Morocco’s rise and what could Morocco lean in from or learn from South Africa?

Michael J. Olivier (27:36):

I’d say definitely what Morocco could learn from South Africa is the integration with nearby major export markets, because I think that’s just proximity I think did help Morocco a lot. So I think they can even learn from South Africa how that benefited South Africa as well. Also export supplier development. So I think that is very good I think with the port roots and so how Morocco can benefit even I think with their proximity to Europe. I also actually wonder how much do you think the success of Morocco is actually attributed to their proximity versus the deliberate industrial strategy? I think when it comes to industrial strategy, I think that’s where they can definitely learn from South Africa and being a collaborator because I think South Africa collaborates well with European market, especially I think the German market as well. And so I think how can Morocco actually position itself as a collaborator given its proximity as well?

Yaseen Ahmid (28:29):

It’s a great point to bring up because I think that’s a genuine threat to the automotive players that are manufacturing their products in South Africa, right? If Morocco has to develop their infrastructure, improve their talent and create a very healthy talent attraction model in these kind of heavy process industries, why wouldn’t a manufacturer in Europe want to shift their operations to a closer nation? So I think this is some excellent, excellent points to bring up. But I think lastly, looking at a very exciting infrastructure project in Africa. So this one is close to my heart because of the work that I’ve had previously in some infrastructure pieces, but also specifically in mining. We’re looking at the Libido corridor, which is to double minerals cargo after $300 million investment. So yeah, it’s about a railway carrying the metals in your EV, like we’ve discussed. So the Libido corridor links the Congo’s copper and cobalt mines to Angola’s Atlantic port of Libido.

(29:35):

And in June, the Libido Atlantic railway drew $300 million from a 753 million facility backed by the US International Development Finance Corporation, which is the DFC. So the investment is already showing up in the numbers. The railway expects about 400,000 tons of international cargo this year, which is split between 200 Thousand tons of copper and cobalt coming from the Congo and 200,000 tons going the other way, which is targeting 800,000 tons in total in 2027. So July has been the best month yet with about 27,000 tons. They’re still ramping up, but even though there’s a flood damage section, which has forced nearly two months of trucking and a halt in operations on the railway. But CEO Nicholas Fournier says that this work has summed up like we are buying a lot of new wagons and a lot of new containers and repairing the line and making sure that the coordination between Angola and the Congo is working better.

(30:38):

And he says that it’s paying off with speed restricted sections down from about 110 to between 12 and 15. So I think during my time in mining, why this I think is important is I say that every new track or every new development of railway seems very, very easy on paper, but it really decides what volume a mine is committing to rail instead of truck. So it depends on the different agreements between the suppliers and the demand that the railway is providing and how this capital kind of flows across different borders. So Michael, I think my question is that rail is really having a moment back home in South Africa as well. We talk about entities like Transnet that are looking to really reindustrialize and recover their operations. I think specifically with South Africa, they’ve resigned a rail access deal with about 11 private train operators, which is expected to run before the end of this year.

(31:39):

So would you say that rail is a strong comeback story for South Africa?

Michael J. Olivier (31:45):

I think time will tell because I think these projects are gateway plan, but I think it’s also the maintenance of them, how they’re also utilized. Also, I even think looking at rail beyond even just the mining industry, how is it actually able to benefit other industries as well? And so I think it’s the implementation of the program, the maintenance of it, the actual follow through and how it can actually translate to opportunities for other industries as well. Because in that way, you’re not just making it inexpensive for one industry. So yes, it’s big upfront cost, but I think eventually it can bring costs down, which will benefit the economy as well. And if you can benefit that across multiple industries, I think it could be very, very positive for the South African economy. But I think with everything, I think it’s always great plan, great intention, but it’s the actual implementation on the ground to see whether it will actually get the benefit that it’s intended to.

Yaseen Ahmid (32:36):

No, definitely. And I think through the conversations and through the stories that we’ve highlighted today, I think that there is this evident push to bring back manufacturing infrastructure back to the continent and retaining the value that we are extracting from the ground. So from cocoa farms to copper mines, it’s four big stories with one big theme running around them. So I think that we’ve had an amazing session so far, but before we wrap, I just wanted to do a quick fire round around the continent. So starting in East Africa where Kenya’s Mombasa port posted record monthly exports in July of 500,000 tons, which is about 25% increase. Staying in East Africa, I mentioned previously Ethiopia’s record $3 billion coffee exports earlier this year, and the government is wanting to double that figure to six billion by 2031. Over in West Africa, Nigeria’s petrol exports hit $750 million and its jet fuel exports 2.2 billion in the first half of this year as the Dangorti refinery ramps up.

(33:45):

For years, Nigeria has exported crude and imported most of its fuel, but that’s starting to flip. And I think that’s a topic of discussion that Michael Avaya had this session. So finally, one for the retailers is that Reuters reported on the hidden pipeline that brings Amazon and Walmart goods to African shoppers. So Michael, out of those, which one is exciting you the most?

Michael J. Olivier (34:11):

I mean, exciting for me, I think is the Nigeria story. I think it’s just talking about how Africa is becoming more important to the global supply chain. I think that’s obviously what excites me the most, but I think this episode as a whole, what connects all of the stories that we spoke about is that Africa is becoming increasingly more important to the global supply chain in so many different ways, whether it’s in agriculture, whether it’s in critical minerals for manufacturing and technological innovation. Africa has always been important, but it’s becoming even so much more important in this rapid development that the world is heading into. But I think the more important question above all of it is how can we translate that strategic position to meaningful economic outcomes across the continent? And I think there’s enormous talent, there’s a lot of hope, there’s a lot of potential, but really creating the infrastructure, the institutions and opportunities that can allow us to actually capitalize on that and actually implement it so it’s on the ground, it’s visible, it’s not just something that we speak about, but something that is actually happening and benefiting the African continent.

(35:12):

I think we’re seeing early signs of that happening, so I’m very optimistic and excited for what is to come.

Yaseen Ahmid (35:18):

I couldn’t have said that better, Michael. I think, again, super happy that we were finally able to hop on a podcast and share our thoughts. I think we’ve got similar sentiments and similar hopes. But yeah, before we close, let’s just share one thing that we’re watching on the continent. I know that you had mentioned that the Dangote and the refinery piece out of Nigeria was particularly exciting to you, but at least mine is on December 30th, the EU deforestation rules start. So we’ve discussed cocoa, we’ve discussed coffee. So how can these cocoa and coffee buyers handle traceability and will there be a dress rehearsal for things like battery passports in 2027? So we’re all talking about traceability, what it means to track your tier two, tier three suppliers, even when it comes into scope one, two, and three. So Michael, what is currently on your radar?

(36:16):

What are you looking at right now?

Michael J. Olivier (36:17):

Oh, what I’m currently looking is just how there can be a bigger startup ecosystem on the African continent. I think it was discussed at the UNGA and they were talking about the Gabby project, which is about more investment in startups on the African continent, so in the startup space and young entrepreneurs. And so I’m just really curious in, can Africa actually have a startup ecosystem that maybe not in the now future, but in the much later for decades to come where they can actually come up to par with the rest of the world?

Yaseen Ahmid (36:46):

No, I agree. I think we’ve talked about talent attraction, talent upliftment, and I think in time, again, we go back to that hopefulness that we have, and I think it’ll just take time for these kinds of initiatives to start up and continue to mature. But I think, okay, as we wrap up, if today got you curious, I’d encourage you to check out Supply Chain Now’s award-winning resource hub, which is available at supplychainnow.com. Tricia and Amanda will drop the links in chat, but you’ll find episodes, interviews, like this amazing live stream that we’ve had today, articles, eBooks, and guides, which are all housed in one place. So like I mentioned before, Tricia and Amanda will drop the link in chat. And before getting into the end of this amazing conversation that we’ve had, Michael, how can folks connect with you?

Michael J. Olivier (37:39):

I’m available on LinkedIn. Just put in Michael, Jay Olifield. I feel happy to reach out. I think I read my LinkedIn messages often, so if you want to send a message, happy to connect with you. If you want to talk anything about entrepreneurship, innovation, Africa’s development, I’d love to connect. And thank you so much, Yasin, for bringing me on board for this.

Yaseen Ahmid (37:57):

Yeah, of course. I think funny enough, you mentioned LinkedIn. I think that’s how we actually bumped into each other. That’s how we started off the conversation and that’s how we’ve become such good friends was through LinkedIn.

Michael J. Olivier (38:09):

Yes. Actually, LinkedIn, I think if used properly, you could really make some really good connections. Yasin, I actually kind of forgot. I feel like I’ve known you for so long, I actually forgot that it was through a LinkedIn message.

Yaseen Ahmid (38:23):

No, that’s amazing. I mean, South Africa is, I think we’re incredibly friendly and very warm. So yeah, I’d suggest reach out to Michael. He’s fantastic. I think we’ve had a great working relationship and yeah, I can consider him a very good friend of mine. But you can also find me on LinkedIn, Yasin Ahmed. And if you’re working on supply chains in Africa or just thinking about entering the continent, just send me a message because I’d love to hear more about what you’re building and how you’re looking to enter the market. But yeah, that’s a wrap on the buzz for today, and I think it’s been an incredible conversation. Thank you again for stepping in and supporting while Scott has been on the road. And then thank you again to the entire Supply Chain Now team for making this a possibility behind the scenes and to our friends at Altium for powering today’s show.

(39:11):

So thank you to everyone who joined us and dropped a comment on behalf of Michael, myself, and the amazing words of Scott Bluton, do good, give forward, be the change that’s needed because we’ll see you next time right here on Supply Chain Now.

Intro/Outro (39:31):

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