Namibia is one position up on the Standard Bank Africa Trade Barometer (SB ATB) index, which compares enablers and challenges to facilitating trade across 10 markets in sub-Saharan Africa.
The country was ranked second in the 2023 edition of the survey after placing third in 2022.
The SB ATB focuses on 10 countries – Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
“There were movements in the country rankings for Issue 3 compared to Issue 2 of the SB ATB … The countries that improved were Kenya (from position 7 to 6), Mozambique (from position 6 to 3), Namibia (from position 3 to 2) and Nigeria (from position 8 to 4),” the Africa Trade Barometer report reads.
The average score for the SB ATB markets increased from 50 to 53 as a result of a combined increase in the government index score across Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
“This is likely a reflection of the several road, rail, port and electricity infrastructure projects that are being undertaken by their respective governments,” it is reported
According to this year’s report, exchange rate volatility, sustained local currency depreciations and capital flight, fuelled by higher interest rates in advanced economies are some of the biggest challenges in terms of cross border trading.
“Continued currency depreciations and higher interest rates are also driving higher sovereign debt, which is exacerbating foreign currency shortages in most of the markets examined by the Standard Bank Trade Barometer. Collectively, these headwinds are significantly impeding business growth and cross-border trade as enterprises struggle to acquire foreign currency to cover imports,” the report stated.
Angola experienced the highest increase in government support while Namibia, Mozambique and Tanzania experienced a decrease in businesses that feel that the government is supportive of cross-border trade. Mozambique experienced the largest decline in government support.
With regard to access to credit, there was a 9% improvement in the overall access to credit indicator. This is despite relatively high interest rates in many of the 10 SB ATB markets.
Poor infrastructure, complex policies and import/export duties continue to adversely affect the perceptions of businesses in terms of ease of trading with other African countries.
On a more positive outlook, businesses in Nigeria find the ease of trading with other African countries to have improved.
Awareness of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) has increased to 44% across businesses, the report indicates.
It is also reported that the GDP and GDP growth rates for Nigeria and South Africa have had the highest positive impact on trade attractiveness for their respective countries.
The report noted that while the GDP for Mozambique and Namibia have slightly recovered from the pandemic, the sizes of their economies remain relatively small compared to other SB ATB markets, thus resulting in a low tradability attractiveness score in relation to the other markets
China remains one of the biggest sources of import with businesses predicting that their China import volumes will increase in the next two years according to the report.
Chinese imports account for a large share of gross import volumes as these imports are often larger in quantity and technological in nature.
South Africa is the second largest import partner for sub-Saharan African countries (only behind China), primarily importing consumer goods and intermediate goods.
According to the report, 31% of importers acquire their inputs from Southern Africa, with imports from South Africa making up an average of 19% of an importer’s gross imports while specifically 58% of Namibian imports originate from South Africa.
The Barometer surveyed 2,600 African businesses, of which 204 were Namibian businesses.
Data was collected principally from the World Bank, although underlying data sources ranged from the International Monetary Fund and the International Trade Centre to country central banks.
