Uganda, in 2015, worked with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to build roads in the eastern DRC, which enabled goods manufactured in Uganda to be exported to this region, benefitting Uganda and the DRC.

During the second day of the Manufacturing Indaba, in Johannesburg, on July 15, natural resource development organisation Uganda Chamber of Energy and Minerals CEO Humphrey Asiimwe cited this as an example of the benefits of African countries not focusing solely on their own needs, but also considering how they could support their neighbours and trade partners through the auspices of regional bodies.

Much of Africa's logistics infrastructure had been designed to enable the export of primary commodities, and there were few inward-facing infrastructure systems that enabled the movement of goods and people between African countries, he noted.

“Africa does not have infrastructure pulling it together. One thing we need to determine under the African Continental Free Trade Area is how to create infrastructure that looks inwards. While Africa presents a market of 1.4-billion people, goods and services need to reach them.

“Uganda needed rigs for drilling. There were many in Nigeria, but without a means to move them to East Africa, it is easier to source rigs from China and the United Arab Emirates. This leaves the continent not working together,” he said.

To harness the continent-wide market and grow together, inward-facing infrastructure links needed to be in place. African countries needed to reconsider their logistics and infrastructure policies, he said.

“Uganda, despite being landlocked, is a gateway to markets in the region, including Burundi, eastern DRC, Rwanda and South Sudan.

“Through the East African Community [regional bloc], we looked at how we can support infrastructure in areas outside our country,” he said.

Further, Asiimwe recommended that governments adopt a fine balance between investors' needs and their country's needs to ensure their economies benefit from their natural resources industries.

Uganda began drilling for oil in 2006, and expects first oil this year. To overcome the resource curse, which is when a country is rich in resources, but its people do not benefit from these, Uganda put in place laws that encourage investors to earn a social licence to operate.

For example, investors are encouraged to invest in developing local suppliers of goods and services.

Additionally, if the challenged companies faced were linked to standards or quality of goods and services, then they were encouraged to work with local suppliers to improve the standards and quality to levels acceptable to the company, he said.

However, Uganda also broadened the definition of local content.

It requires companies to first try to procure goods and services locally, but, if there are no local companies that can meet the quotas or certification requirements, then it requires companies to search for suitable companies in the region.

If no suitable suppliers are present in the region, then Uganda encourages companies to look for suitable suppliers in Africa.

Meanwhile, Asiimwe also recommended a more nuanced approach to localisation requirements that incorporated the capabilities of countries in a region.

If a mine will only produce for five to seven years, requiring investors to build refining plants that have a return on investment horizon of 15 to 20 years would be placing the cart before the horse.

Africa needed to think differently about the mid- and downstream value chains to attract investments into its industries, he said.

Countries should stop thinking about doing everything in one place. Requiring tungsten mined in Rwanda to be refined in the country would not attract any investment.

For example, graphite mined in Uganda can be processed in Tanzania and refined in Zambia. Ore produced in the DRC could be beneficiated in Zimbabwe with final beneficiation being done in South Africa.

“African countries need to think about how we can build around various parts of the value chains,” Asiimwe said.

“My key message would be that we need to look at how we can better work together, and thereby create bigger markets and do a lot more.”