Unit 4 Week 4 Discussion GB502

Unit 4: Lecture

Food for Thought

https://youtu.be/kmOtHpTl0pg

Breaking the resource curse in sub-Saharan Africa

Trade in Africa is dominated by various natural resources find in abundance. However, it differs from one country to another. For instance countries such as South Africa is highly endowed by natural resources with a large trade volume whereas a country such as Burundi has the least trade volumes. A majority of African countries are still evolving and therefore depend deeply on foreign aids to survive. Hence, trade in Africa is, therefore, a representation of extremes.

Botswana and South Africa are the two biggest exporting countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa is the world’s leading producer of gold as well as diamonds. The country has a trustworthy law system. It has also a large pool of skilled labor and, advanced infrastructure and developed financial resources. All these factors are mostly missing from other Sub-Sahara African countries. Below are the main exported produces of Sub-Sahara African countries: Palm oil; Gold and diamonds; Oil; cocoa; timber and precious metals.

Export has been the main commodity for many economies in the region such as Nigeria which is one of the world's largest oil reserves and Africa's leading oil producer. With its resources, Nigeria can produce 3.2 million barrels/day. However, it only produces an average of 2.21 million barrels/day. Lately, countries such as Sudan, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea have also benefited from their oil exports to enjoy economic improvement.

However, Africa still struggles with food items and basic facilities. It is often under the grip of internal outbreaks, leaving less scope for infrastructural or administrative change over. Therefore, African imports feature medical supplies as well as food items. The main imported commodities include machinery and equipment; chemicals; petroleum products; scientific instruments and foodstuff. Machinery and equipment imports have become consistent as the region is trying to uplift its productivity and make use of its vast resources. However, the imports are limited to Sub-Sahara African countries that have a good level of consumption. To put consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa in perspective, a large number of people still live on under 70 cents a day.

Overall, Africa trade has been helped enormously by others such as European Union, Japan and China that have not only invested a lot in the emerging countries but have been lately regular African trade partners as well. Conduct a literature review to better understand the trade picture of Sub-Saharan African nations and develop an expertise in the topic and the region.

Reference

· World Integrated Trade Solution. (n.d.).  United States trade statistics. (Links to an external site.)  Retrieved from https://wits.worldbank.org/CountryProfile/en/SSFURL