German Chamber plans to open more offices in Africa

Africa may be more than just the flavour of the month, it could very well be the flavour of the decade, said Matthias Boddenberg, CEO of the South African German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SAGCCI). “It is therefore becoming increasingly important for us to extend our African footprint and we have some interesting plans on the cards for 2012,” he told FTW. “We already have offices in Angola, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, but we plan to extend this as we need more representation in Africa.” Boddenberg said the Chamber was already committed to several African events, including the global expo in Botswana and the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair. “We will be undertaking fact-finding missions to several countries such as the DRC to investigate the possibilities on offer for our mission. In the DRC and other countries we will be looking at especially what the opportunities are around commodities,” said Boddenberg. While German companies are not very active in mining itself, they are big suppliers to the mining industry. Boddenberg said in May the chamber would also be involved in a conference to be held in Johannesburg to discuss infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa, with delegations from all over Africa, Europe, India and China expected. “We are committed to building our capacity across Africa to increase our imports to the continent, at the same time generating opportunities for African countries wanting to export to Germany.”