Multi nationals working in Africa have often been accused of bypassing local suppliers for foreign ones in the supply of products and services that could otherwise have been procured in-country. Whilst such multinational companies claim on the one hand that, they are unable to find trustworthy local companies to do business with, local companies on the other hand say they don’t try hard enough.
With a go-getting name; Invest in Africa (IIA), an initiative began by Tullow Oil Plc in 2012, says they are working to address just that challenge.
IIA comprises of a growing group of companies doing business in Africa, including EY, Lonhro and Ecobank. Together they claim to work towards addressing the cross-sector challenges of doing business in Africa.
As William Pollen Director at IIA explains “multinationals working in Africa need local businesses to supply them with products and services, the issue however is they often struggle to find local suppliers that can deliver to the standards required”
The African Partner Pool is therefore IIA response to this challenge, the pool is a directory that brings local and independently validated businesses together into one place. The directory allows investors and purchasers to filter through local suppliers based on key criteria to find credible business partners. Pollen is confident “the directory will help local suppliers to promote their businesses and increase their chances of winning contracts”. In addition the African Partner Pool also provides local businesses with reduced administration costs, enhanced visibility within investor and purchaser communities, feedback on capabilities and performance as well as greater access to new business and business training.
With Ghana as the focus, the project is hoping to add value to Small and Medium scale businesses in Africa by providing training, mentoring and coaching to managers of such business. This initiative also allows local businesses to access the training and support of Invest In Africa Partners, helping them raise their standards.
If it works as IIA hopes, the African Partner Pool will be used by a host of international companies to locate businesses to supply the products and services they need. For local businesses this means getting into the supply chain of an international company with obvious implications for business growth.
Whilst not a completely novel idea; such initiatives have been tried in several forms in various Africa countries, IIA might just succeed where other have failed, thanks to new thinking about doing business in Africa and the increasing number of multinational’s signing up.