The Ministry of Economic Development has promoted a mission to Ghana and Ethiopia in which a series of Italian companies and Sace, an insurance-financial group active in export credit, will take part. You will be part of the delegation led by Deputy Minister Carlo Calenda, Camilla Cionini Visani, director of large customers and institutional relations of Sace.
Here is a summary of the updated fact sheets of both countries, with considerations on the economic, political, financial and operational context, and data on trade with Italy. The analyzes are by Sace.
GHANA
In 2014, Italian exports to Ghana amounted to 160 million euros. In the first eight months of 2015, Italian exports to Ghana grew by 30% compared to the previous year. The main sectors for Italian exports were instrumental mechanics, food products and metallurgy. The greatest opportunities for Italian companies are offered by the extractive sector with the expansion of gold mines and the consolidation of oil and gas production, which will lead to further growth in related industries.
ETHIOPIA
The Growth and Transformation Plan 2015-20 approved by the Ethiopian government aims to strengthen the country's industrialization levels and opens up important opportunities for Italian exports, in particular for instrumental mechanics connected to sectors such as textiles and clothing, leather and tanning, chemical products and pharmaceuticals. In 2014, Italian exports to Ethiopia amounted to 263 million euros, in line with the values of the previous year and concerned in particular instrumental mechanics, means of transport and electrical appliances. Italian companies, both SMEs and large companies, are well established in the country and are often involved in large infrastructure and industrial projects.
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: A BIG MARKET OF THE FUTURE
The government mission confirms the attractiveness of this Region for Italian businesses and is reflected in the operations insured by SACE in support of exports and internationalisation, which reached 1 billion euros in the third quarter of 2015 and almost quadrupled compared to the same period in 2014. To seize this potential, SACE launched the Frontier Markets programme, dedicated above all to SMEs: in addition to offering the assistance of the SACE offices in Johannesburg and Nairobi, it provides companies with guaranteed credit lines to support transactions with local counterparties ; advisory services, to evaluate the product sectors with the greatest potential, the underlying risk profiles (credit, political, regulatory, environmental) and the financial-insurance solutions to support individual commercial and investment transactions; business matching seminars and meetings and in-depth analysis of the territory.
