World Trade Center St. Louis leaders have a growing interest in building more economic partnerships with Africa.
Some St. Louis companies already have footprints in infrastructure and agriculture in Africa, which encourages African entrepreneurs and investors to look at the region as a hub for innovation and trade, said World Trade Center St. Louis Executive Director Tim Nowak.
“The continent (Africa) is urbanized, digitized and innovative at an extraordinary pace for St Louis businesses, investors, educators and community leaders,” Nowak said Wednesday during the center’s global trade and investment summit. “Africa is no longer a distant frontier. It is a present opportunity. Our role is to lean into that future, to be a city that welcomes partnerships and embraces the exchange of ideas and goods and culture.”
According to recent reports, Africa’s population will double by 2050. Nowak said this is why St. Louis should consider trading and investing with young African entrepreneurs. The World Trade Center St. Louis plans to embark on a trade mission to Kenya and Rwanda next year to better help connect the area with potential economic partnerships.
The summit also included a panel conversation about global trade and investments with Fred Swaniker, founder and CEO of Sand Technologies; Elzandi Oosthuizen, senior vice president of the Head Enterprise Corn Product Team at Bayer Crop Science Division; and Arthur Asiimwe, deputy chief of mission for the Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda to the U.S.
St. Louis already has a vibrant African community, which will make it easier for St. Louis businesses to connect with Africa’s fast-growing economy, said Asiimwe.
As deputy ambassador for the Republic of Rwanda, he said he is looking into ways to bridge St. Louis’ pharmaceutical, technology and agriculture industries to his home country.
“St Louis is known for pharmaceuticals … if you came and set up a pharmaceutical plant in Africa, you'll be guaranteed a huge market of 1.3 billion people.
“Missouri is known for its potential in agriculture, large-scale industrial agriculture is an area that is virgin in Africa. [St. Louis] can get into corporations in manufacturing, in technology and information and communications technology,” Asiimwe said.
He said that education is another area St. Louis could benefit from connecting with Africa. Rwanda is working on linking satellite campuses to American universities. Asiimwe said bringing students to the U.S. from Rwanda is not that simple, especially during a time when accessing visas can be difficult.
Thousands of African immigrants call St. Louis home and are tapped into every sector in the region. However, many are business owners who are still connected economically to their home countries.
St. Louis is fortunate to have an African Chamber of Commerce, which gives St. Louis a slight edge over other midsize metropolitan cities looking to connect with Africa, said Geoffrey Soyiantet, executive director of Vitendo4Africa, a regional African social organization.
“If you're interested in doing business in Africa, and you don't have somebody who is on the ground to give you the details of the logistics that knows about Africa, then you may not be able to do much,” he said.
He hopes local African startup companies and other entrepreneurs will also be a part of the conversations that regional economic leaders are having about trade and investments between St. Louis and Africa.
“I've always wanted to change the narrative that Africans are not here to take resources. They are here to add value,” Soyiantet said. “(It) gives me hope now to see the opportunities that Africans are bringing, not just here in St Louis, but also even connecting investors and those who are interested to learn about Africa.”
With the relationships the region already has with Africa through the Danforth Plant Science Center, Bayer or others in agriculture and healthcare technology, St. Louis can continue being a leading city with economic ties to African countries, Nowak said.
“This is an opportunity for so many around here, whether it's your goods or your services or your university, there's a lot of opportunity here,” he said. “I think that we're going to leverage where those connections already exist, but we're going to build on so much more.”
