On April 24, 2023, the German Africa Foundation (DAS) and the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) hosted a spring reception in honour of the African Diplomatic Corps. On this evening, an active dialog between the 140 participants from the African diplomatic corps and German politics and business took place in a friendly atmosphere at the Haus der deutschen Wirtschaft in Berlin.
After welcoming remarks by Dr. Uschi Eid, President of the German Africa Foundation, Prof. Dr. Heinz-Walter Große, Chairman of the Sub-Saharan Africa Initiative of German Business (SAFRI) and H.E. Dr. Abdallah Saleh Possi, Ambassador of the United Republic of Tanzania on behalf of the Doyen of the African Diplomatic Corps H.E. Mohamed Ould Brahim Khlil, Hon. Nancy Tembo (Foreign Minister of the Republic of Malawi), Katja Keul (Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office) and Heike Bergmann (Senior Vice President Sales Africa, Voith Hydro) discussed what German-African cooperation can achieve and what challenges exist against the backdrop of the changing geopolitical situation and global crises, before these and other topics were discussed further among the guests at the reception.
The message from the spring reception was that Germany must make itself an attractive partner for Africa, as global challenges can only be solved together. This requires a strengthening of German-African relations and intensified cooperation, which serves the interests of both sides equally and at the same time tolerates open and honest discussions on different interests. In view of the multitude of global challenges, time is pressing – words are no longer enough, action must finally follow on all sides.
The Federal Foreign Office will once again make its partnership-based cooperation offers more attractive and revise the Africa policy guidelines from 2019. In concrete terms, a changed welcoming culture is to be implemented by making it easier to issue visas, which should intensify and improve the exchange between business partners as well as the exchange of skilled workers. However, this will require both financial and human resources in the local embassies.
The issue of financing is also central in other areas of German-African cooperation. On the one hand, access to climate financing is crucial for African countries in order to counter the various consequences of climate change; on the other hand, high levels of investment in infrastructure are needed, not least in order to really take advantage of the African Free Trade Area and significantly reduce logistics costs for intra-African trade. Finally, better financing options for projects by German companies on the African continent are also needed in order to sustainably promote the comparatively low level of investment from Germany.
The renewable energy sector was identified as extremely attractive for German companies. At present, 76% of electricity in Africa is still generated from fossil fuels, only 6% of electricity comes from wind and, in the area of solar power, the whole of Africa has less installed capacity (11.6 GW) than the Netherlands (19 GW). This means that a huge potential for renewable energies remains untapped. At the same time, a fair energy transition must also include the further expansion of fossil fuels as a transitional solution for African countries, as 600 million people on the continent have no access to electricity at all. Without electricity, there is no development – accordingly, the continent must be free to use its own resources.
In addition to access to electricity, the development of local value creation was emphasized as a prerequisite for the continent’s economic development. The era of raw material exports must come to an end and products must be manufactured on the continent. This is the only way to create prosperity and jobs locally. The implementation of the African Free Trade Area is the basis for this to succeed. At the same time, this is precisely where Germany’s potential support as a partner to African countries comes in, both at a political and economic level. And this is precisely how attractive offers are created.
