A Cabanga Africa Publication
Africa Thinks Here
On-the-ground business intelligence in South Africa & Eswatini, since July 2019.
Section
Long before ministers sat down in Gaborone this week to discuss rules of origin, ordinary shoppers across SADC's borders had already answered the question of whether regional trade is worth doing. Cross-border markets from Beitbridge to Chirundu and Kasumbalesa...
A woman buying maize meal in Kasane, Botswana, and a trader restocking shelves across the river in Kazungula, Zambia, are separated by a river crossing that a truck can queue at for hours. The contradiction is this: the two towns sit within sight of each other, share...
Ministers describe a trade facilitation programme as a way to reduce the cost of doing business across a region. Almost nothing in that sentence tells a shopper in Lusaka, Maputo or Gaborone whether the imported goods on the shelf in front of them will get cheaper,...