Logistics and Global Value Chains in Africa

Focusing on global value chains and their importance to trade, this edited collection explores the strategic role of logistics and supply chain infrastructure in the development of Africa. Skilled authors present critical analysis of the current state of logistics in Africa, and suggest improvements to policy and practice which address the issue of poor trading relationships. This book will engage entrepreneurs, academics and policy-makers interested in international business, raising awareness of the need for better trade infrastructure in Africa in order to ensure the continent’s economic development.

Adebisi Adewole is a lecturer in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at the University of the West of Scotland, UK. He is also Deputy Director of the Centre for African Research on Enterprise and Economic Development (CAREED) at the University of the West of Scotland.

John J. Struthers is Professor in the School of Business and Enterprise at the University of the West of Scotland, UK. He is also Director of CAREED.

“Despite trade openness and resource endowment, African countries remain marginal players in the Global Value Chains (GVCs) that dominate international trade. The obstacles to Africa’s competitiveness and trade performance are many but the most outstanding are those associated with underdeveloped trade logistics and weak supply chain management. Drawing from both primary and secondary data, this book explains how poor infrastructure along with costly operations of supply chain networks and instability in commodity prices are preventing African countries from reaping the development benefits that are often associated with GVCs. This timely and lucid book is essential reading for scholars and practitioners and for all those concerned with Africa’s future in regional and international trade.” (Taffere Tesfachew, former Director, Division on Africa and Least Developed Countries, UNCTAD)

“For some of the products that flow out of Africa, the producers are able to influence the cost of production.  For many they are not.  And for very few indeed can Africa influence what the final user or consumer is able, willing, or obliged to pay.  It is a price taker in global commodity markets.  It follows that if the continent is to earn its way in the world more successfully, and become more prosperous, it must claim as much as possible of the value added between production and use.  To do so calls for efficiency, both in movement and in markets, and this book takes apart aspects of the supply and value chain, to see how they work and how that may be made better and efficient. Read this book if you want to understand practical steps to prosperity for the continent, in part and as a whole.  My analogy:  if you want an engine to run more smoothly, and to generate more power, you start by stripping it down.  You make sure that the components and sub-assemblies fit together physically, are properly connected, and that lubricants flow to where they are needed.  In this book the authors and the editors take their spanners to Africa’s economy.” (Hervey Gibson, Director, the Social Accounting Frameworks for Epidemics and Revival (SAFER), Professor, University of Glasgow: Glasgow Centre for International Development, and Affiliate Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, and Pascal Associate, School of Education Research Associate, University of East Anglia, UK.)