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There is a well-known quote by Mark Twain

that goes: “Buy land! They’re not making it

anymore.”

It is succinct in its way of reminding

people of the relative scarcity and finite

nature of land.

Having spent most of my life in South

Africa I had the (occasionally worrying)

hands-on experience of an African nation

going through considerable change. This

change, happening all over the country, hasrecently turned to environmental protection

and a general awareness, enforced by

strengthening legislation, such as the

drafting of the Bamako Convention, an

African convention to prohibit all hazardous

waste imports into Africa which came

into force in 1998, and the South African

National Environmental Management:

Waste Act of 2008. This is all a positive drive

for Africa; however, there are many ant-hills

to jump and rivers to cross before “African

success”.For most business owners wishing to do

business in Africa the problems they face

seem insurmountable, including: available

funding, cultural and distance barriers, law

enforcement, ground conditions and the

sheer logistics involved in carrying out the

project. So why is it worth their while to

investigate the possibilities?

The level of Foreign Direct Investment

(FDI) across the continent coming from

internal states is growing but the bulk is

resource intensive trade with countries

outside the continent. The top two African

countries for FDI are South Africa and

Nigeria, reflecting the mass of wealth

these countries float on and their own

demographic realities. The levels of inward

and outward FDI between these two

countries and the EU are broadly on par

(with the EU leading slightly) and represent

the possibility that trade with Africa as a

whole could one day be more balanced. Not

only in the value but in the type and range of 

products traded.

Infrastructure is unreliable and many

modern thoughts have not permeated the

general populace, but although there is a

great deal of negative publicity surrounding

Africa (which tends to be all people hear)

in reality there is an enormous amount of 

positivity.

Agriculture, mining and oil industry,alternative energy, construction,

infrastructure, remediation and waste

management are some of the biggest

opportunity markets developing in Africa

right now and the future will hold many

more as urbanisation takes hold and

consumerism rises with incomes.

This vast and diverse continent offers

many opportunities besides the sunshine

and raw natural beauty.

It is home to more than 1bn people living

in 54 individual countries, overshadowing

Europe’s 400m living in 50 countries.

Europe is not often considered homogenous

and nor should you think of Africa as

anything such. While I draw on some

commonalities this caution to generalise

remains.

The reasons for the push and pulls of these

FDI flows are quite illustrative to what’s

actually going on. The push factors for more

trade and investment outside their home

African country include:

• Rising wealth in emerging markets;

• Breaking up domestic monopolies;

• Rising cost of labour;

• New technology and communications

leading to improved information sharing

and reduced transaction costs;

• Strategic desire to procure inputs such as

oil;

• Capital account liberalisation, changes intrade barriers, regional trade agreements,

and government policies encouraging

outward FDI.

Equally, the pull factors to these African

countries are:

• Large, growing markets;

• Supply of cheap labour;

• Abundance in raw materials;

• Incentives in host countries with

preferential treatment of foreign companies.

Even with rising levels of trade, the

continent still has an uncertain future.

For the moment it relies on the extractive

resource industries and agriculture.

Diversification of sectors has not yet

reached sustainable levels in many parts.

The over-reliance on extractive industries

reflects the natural richness and the

lack of more diversification is the result

of the continents tremulous past. With

new deposits and resources frequently

 Africa - barefoot and running

26 | african remediation

Daryn Short of Shift Soil reflects on the remediation potential in Africa, and its emerging 

opportunities for the industry.

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discovered, like the recent oil and gas finds

near Ghana and Angola, the resource

burden will soon be ramped up and the

ability to handle this change will be decided

on a country by country basis reflecting

local institutional development.

Africa represents more than 20% of 

Earth’s land with 16% of its soils no longer

able to sustain any growth, 65% of which

is agricultural, and the problem isn’t going

away. Facing agricultural stagnation and a

general state of soil decline with a range of 

causes, the four biggest pollution problems

originate from mining, pesticides and the

chemical petroleum industry and more

recently e-wastes. The introduction of 

industry, western products and waste in

conjunction with governments havinglittle or no environmental legislation, gave

governments, companies and individuals

free will to discharge waste into the soil,

water and air.

What are the challenges with working

in Africa?

Being the poorest continent, Africa has

had some difficulties in funding these

costly clean-up operations until recent

involvement from the World Bank,

UN, western countries/companies, andlocal governments (by way of fines and

levies). Cultural and language barriers

are often misunderstood or overlooked,

so having a local partner could prevent

any communication breakdown as well as

provide local legal advice. Although African

legislation is growing stronger, there is a

lack of environmental law enforcement in

somewhat corrupt environments, making it

hard to identify and prosecute polluters.Ground conditions are quite unlike

the UK, and one needs to be prepared for

scorching heat, enormous thunder storms,

lack of portable water, ablution facilities,

limited road access, theft and more. This

leads on to logistical problems when

deploying, moving from site to site, moving

staff (and recruiting new staff), access to sites

and available potable water to name a few.

Two major stories have come out

of Nigeria within the last eight

months were where more than

600 children died from lead

poisoning directly connected

to local illegal gold mining.

The villagers believe that

a “spell” has been cast

on their community,

and deny their only

income stream is killing

their youth. This is a

prime example of how

culturally different we

all are and how much

understanding we needto share and gain.

However bright or

bleak Africa’s future,

the opportunities are

rewarding but are equally as challenging.A few rules about working with African’s

in their homeland are worth keeping in

mind:-

1) local support is crucial. Whenever

feasible, source locally, use traditional

means of distribution and be considerate of 

custom without neglecting your contracts;

2) salaries may be low, but so is productivity.

Total operating cost can be 2-3 times higher

than Europe;

3) never underestimate the importance of 

keeping personal documentation up to date.

Valid documentation for your host country

is vital;

4) Africans do not get bogged down with

hardships nor complain about the situation.

They are a constant source of creativity and

endurance. You too will be rewarded for

the ability to do this with ‘out-of-the-box’

thinking;

5) you must be ready to engage the wider

community and stakeholders, developing

real partnerships. If you create a business

opportunity people will see beyond the

politics to engage the idea and help to makeit happen.

Daryn Short

 Shift Soil Remediation

african remediation| 27

Source: World Resources Institute