Leather sector is key for African economy
The leather industry in southern Africa will play a key role in pulling many arid and semi-arid areas out of poverty, according to a team of experts from 12 Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) member countries.
The experts decided that Africa’s leather industry needed a boost at the regional forum on leather sector strategy, organised by COMESA and the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Kigali, Rwanda.
Speaking at the meeting, Frank D. Mugyenyi, regional technical advisor of COMESA’s programme for Building African Capacity Trade said: “We are aiming at adding value to our hides and skins, because our region has the highest number of live stock.”
Mr Mugyenyi called upon member countries to promote the production of high quality hides and skins, stating that the most important thing is to attract investment in the sector.
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Emmanuel Hategeka, said that hides, skins and leather-related industries had high potential for commodity development. “The leather industry in Rwanda is still young but when we look at the region which is the focus of this forum, Africa possesses 12 to 30% of the world’s cattle, sheep and goats. That is a huge share of the world’s production of leather and when it comes to value chain, Africa accounts for the lowest share in the multibillion dollar industry,” Mr Hategeka said.
Hernan A Manson, associate advisor for value development for the ITC, said that the leather sector had not been given much attention at a national or regional level but is an anchor to industrialisation, through value addition.
