Africa, a new opportunity for Iran’s private sector
By Morteza Rahimi
Former Iranian ambassador to Nigeria
Days after a visit by the Algerian foreign minister to Tehran, Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi embarks on a three-nation African tour today, which will take him to Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
The trips open up a good opportunity for Iran to strengthen its political and economic cooperation with the African countries.
In general, Iran has always paid attention to Africa and the capacities available in this continent, but during the past decades the necessary hardware and software mechanisms have not been provided to use those capacities. In fact, Iran’s relations with Africa have had ups and downs. Sometimes, with the change in governments in Iran, the priorities of the country’s foreign policy have also undergone changes –an issue that has damaged development of Iran’s cooperation with African countries.
However, we are witnessing a new approach adopted by the current Iranian government towards relations with African countries, which we hope would open up new opportunities to expand relations and economic cooperation between Iran and African countries.
During the last Iranian year, 20 ministers from African countries visited Tehran, which indicates their attention to Iran. Last year, the volume of Iran’s trade with Nigeria saw a significant increase, reaching about $200 million, and is expected to reach more than $300 million this year.
At the same time, Iran’s Foreign Ministry is also taking special heed to the political and economic potential in the African Continent, and has encouraged Iran’s businessmen and private sector to promote their cooperation with African countries as a new market. However, due to the long distance and short-term view of the private sector, economic cooperation has not reached its potential so far.
President Raeisi’s visit to Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe will definitely pave the way for improving relations. In addition to commodities, the African countries can also import technology from Iran.
In fact, the change in relations between Iran and the African Continent has occurred in the shadow of the policies and programs introduced by the current administration; however, measures should be taken to expand relations and reach bilateral and multilateral agreements with the African countries.
Raeisi’s trip to the African countries will be a good opportunity to speed up this development. Iran’s private sector should also take advantage of this great opportunity and prepare itself to enter new markets.