Business Reporter
COMESA Secretary General Chileshe Kapwepwe has urged the region to embrace circularity as a strategy for keeping economic value within the continent, revealing that circular economy models could create around six million net jobs worldwide while global trade in secondary goods, materials, waste and scrap is already worth close to $300 billion a year.
Delivering remarks at the official opening of the COMESA Green Industries Connect forum at the Harare International Conference Centre, Ms Kapwepwe painted a stark picture of the region’s current linear economy, noting that only 6.9 percent of materials in the world economy are cycled back, and that the gap is greatest on the African continent.
“Africa is home to a large share of the world’s livestock, yet our global leather trade is limited and most of our hides leave unprocessed,” she said. She added that fewer than one in ten tonnes of plastic waste is recycled, despite the region producing significant volumes of the material.
Ms Kapwepwe emphasised that for a region where raw materials too often leave and return as finished goods, circularity means keeping most of the value at home. “Circularity means keeping most of the value at home, creating new small and medium enterprises and decent jobs for women and youth, including the informal sector that already collects, repairs and recycles across our cities,” she said.
She also warned that trading activity is being reshaped by regulatory shifts in key export markets, particularly in the European Union, one of the region’s largest trading partners, where new packaging regulations are placing fresh demands on exporters.
The Secretary General’s remarks reinforced the forum’s central theme: that the transition to a circular economy is not only an environmental necessity but a strategic economic opportunity for COMESA member states seeking to industrialise, create jobs and remain competitive in global markets.
The event continues with panel discussions on the leather sector, policy development and investable circular business models, culminating in a closing ceremony where key recommendations and next steps will be outlined by Amb. Dr. Mohamed Kadah, Assistant Secretary General (Programmes) at the COMESA Secretariat.
