Abstract:
The main contribution of this work is the analysis of whether a bio-based development
of sub-Saharan Africa is feasible. After a description of what a bioeconomy is and how
it can be structured at national level, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa were picked as
representative countries of different RECs. It emerges that sub-Saharan Africa can
count on rich natural resources and biodiversity, ongoing continental integration at
economic and political level, successful collaborations both with local and
international partners, and positive examples of national and regional strategies
aiming at the development of bioeconomy-related fields. For this reason the future of
bio-energy, bio-fuels and bio-refineries in sub-Saharan Africa looks promising.
Despite describing only three of the 54 officially recognised nations in the continent,
this work grasps how each individual state in the continent faces different underlying
conditions. As a consequence, while integration is necessary to align policies and
avoid repetitions, a bioeconomy strategy for the entire world region would be
extremely complex. Arguably, Morris (2016) states that Africa has positive chances to
develop a dynamic bioeconomy. Notably however, the continent deals with complex
challenges that constitute major hurdles for a qualitative growth. In particular, it is
characterised by a generally poor infrastructure, limited availability of skilled labour,
rather unfavourable financial conditions, highly differentiated agro-climatic settings,
and unstable politics and terrorism. As a consequence, tangible improvements in
institutions, infrastructure, finance and in society must take place for the low-carbon
growth path to become true in the years to come. Larger investments should be made
to keep the pace with state-of-the-art technologies, such to build location-specific
The Bioeconomy in Developing Nations
competitive advantages on new knowledge. This recalls the notion of leap-frogging.
Indeed, engaging resources in building traditional structures and later on transforming
them to support sustainable long-term growth would be a waste of time and efforts.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to grow and become a major global player in
the future through a bioeconomy, but there are evident barriers that must be
overcome. Further research in this direction could concentrate on the analysis of
single countries and specific industries in a way that ad hoc policies and actions can
be advanced. This would provide governments helpful guidelines of objective-oriented
paths to follow in order to successfully implement a bioeconomy.
