New Zealand Creates New Council To Enhance Trade Ties With Africa

New Zealand has created a new organisation, New Zealand Africa Business Council, to promote trade ties between it and African nations.

The new council currently has 15 members and they are already planning to hold an event that will give their country and African business people the chance to network together.

The council will be officially launched at an event in Auckland on February 5 and it will have a number of Canberra-based African High Commissioners in attendance.

      According to Chris Jones, the chairman of the newly formed New Zealand Africa Business Council and the chief executive of Auckland-based Mobilis Networks, which has supplied software for mobile networks across more than a dozen African countries including Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania and Kenya; one of the group's main aims was to highlight the opportunities that exist for Kiwi businesses from Cape Town to Cairo.

"Certain countries in Africa are challenging, but it's certainly one of the growth areas that present a massive opportunity. The whole goal of the council is to encourage trade," Jones said.

He said New Zealand companies in the IT, energy - especially geothermal - and primary sectors were particularly well-placed to do business in Africa.

According to the International Monetary Fund, seven of the world's 10 fastest growing economies between 2011 and 2015 will be African nations. The African nations include Ethiopia (8.1%), Mozambique (7.7%), Tanzania (7.2 %), Congo (7 %), Ghana (7 %), Zambia (6.9 %) and  Nigeria (6.8 %).

 New Zealand Herald reported that New Zealand exports to Algeria, South Africa and Nigeria are now worth close to $1 billion.