Leather to be a pillar of Chad’s economic future
Chad’s aims of making its economy more industrialised and more diversified took a step forward in the first week in March. A workshop took place in the capital city, N’Djamena, co-organised by the government and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), billed as what the ECA called a “last sprint toward Chad's new industrial masterplan”.
This plan, covering the decade 2020-2030, seeks to move the country’s economic growth from -2% in 2017 to more than 8% per year by 2030.
The partners have said private sector companies, development organisations, academia, civil society, professional bodies and the media will all have a part to play in facilitating the emergence of small, medium and large industrial enterprises in Chad. The share of manufacturing is projected to grow from 8% of gross domestic product at the moment to 16% by 2030, with manufacturing’s share of total exports to increase from 2% now to 6% in 2030.
There are 12 pillars to the plan and the first of these pillars on which the country will seek to build its economic future is meat, leather and milk.
Preparations for implementing the plan have been under way since at least 2018 when the minister of economy and development, Issa Doubragne, said: “Chad has no more time to waste [to] accelerate a proper formulation and implementation of this master plan so that we can emerge, in the next four or five years, amongst the most resilient and diversified Central African nations.”
