For two regions with such an intertwined history, economic ties between Africa and the Caribbean are relatively limited. However, the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) appears to have revived African initiatives to promote trade with the rest of the world as well as among AfCFTA member states.
Both regions have a shared history based on the transatlantic slave trade, which resulted in a large part of the African diaspora living in the Caribbean. Indeed, most attention until recently focused on building historical links, particularly through events to commemorate the devastating slave trade.
Greater South-South cooperation and trade has been discussed since the 1970s, including in the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, but actual trade volumes have remained stubbornly low. The most recent figures on intra-regional trade come from 2017, when Africa exported just $258 million to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, importing $449 million in return.
In 1998-99, efforts were made to build links between CARICOM and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), but made little progress. Direct diplomatic representation is limited, with only Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago having resident diplomatic missions in South Africa, while only Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are represented in Nigeria.
This is mainly due to the lack of travel between the two regions, but also due to the financial constraints of the mostly very small Caribbean countries. In return, Morocco has an embassy in Saint Lucia to cover the entire region since 2015, while Nigeria and South Africa have missions in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
Trade relations have been limited, partly because of the Caribbean’s limited population size and GDP, but also because African and Caribbean economies have traditionally competed for many of the same points in the global economy: the export of agricultural products and other raw materials in the industrialized world.
However, recent important economic ties include the decision by the Central Bank of Nigeria to award the contract to develop its new digital currency, the eNaira, to fintech company Bitt Inc, which is based in Barbados. In addition, Nigerian investors hope to acquire a 75% stake in regional Caribbean airline LIAT. Republic Bank of Trinidad and Tobago has a subsidiary in Ghana, while Jamaican conglomerate Grace Kennedy Group was active in the same country from 2012 to 2018.
There are very few direct air and sea connections between the two regions, although direct air services between the Caribbean and Ghana and Kenya have been proposed. There is scope for greater tourism, with Caribbean people encouraged to connect with the territories from which their ancestors came, perhaps even to research their genealogy.
Very few bilateral tax and investment agreements are currently in force, although Barbados and Rwanda will sign an investment agreement this year. The Caribbean has simply not been considered an economic priority by African countries in the past. However, Afreximbank has announced that it will provide trade finance through the new Africa-Caribbean Trade and Investment Financing Facility with initial capital of $250 million.
Approaching
Several African leaders and multilateral organizations have sought to promote economic relations and broader ties with the Caribbean over the past three years. In June 2019, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo visited five English-speaking Caribbean countries: Barbados, Guyana, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, signing bilateral cooperation agreements in the process. The Government of Ghana called for a stronger relationship between the African diaspora and the African continent during its 2019 year of return.
A summit of African and Caribbean Heads of State and Government was held in Nairobi in September 2021. At the summit, then Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta called for the two regions to work together to address the challenges posed by Covid-19, levels rising debt, climate change and the blue economy. CARICOM and the African Union used the event to highlight the work they have done dually to promote more equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, with Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley commenting: “There’s nothing like an idea, time to to which it has come”.
At the event, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda – and Chairman of CARICOM – Gaston Browne said: “We need to create cooperative structures to promote our common socio-economic interests; increased investment and trade, as well as people-to-people exchanges between Africa and the Caribbean. We must resist being pushed to the margins of international decision-making and cooperate on decisions to restructure the global financial architecture, on global taxation, embezzlement, climate change and reparations, among others.
On September 1-3, Barbados will host the inaugural African Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF), which is organized by Afreximbank, the African Union Commission, the AfCFTA Secretariat, the African Business Council, the CARICOM Secretariat and the Export Development Agency of the Caribbean. like the Government of Barbados.
The forum, which will be held annually for both regions to analyze the global situation and “their place within it”, aims to promote cooperation, unity and cultural engagement, but the main focus is on promoting trade. While specific trade agreements are possible, such events are primarily important to highlight the potential of new trade relationships and encourage business leaders to broaden their perspectives.
CARICOM is a collection of 15 countries and dependencies, only one of which is not Anglophone – Haiti. However, it should be noted that CARICOM has a population of only 19 million compared to the total Caribbean population of 44 million. Two of the most populous countries in the Caribbean – Cuba and the Dominican Republic – are not members and are often considered separate from the rest of the Caribbean. English-speaking African countries share a common language with 14 of the CARICOM member states, while francophone countries have linguistic ties with Haiti.
