Ireland is looking to expand investment and trade with African countries, but some Irish companies are hesitant to invest due to bureaucratic hurdles.
Neale Richmond, Irish minister of state for international development & diaspora, said some companies cited difficulties in navigating governance and bureaucracy layers as impediments.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Africa-Ireland Trade Horizons conference in Dublin this week, Richmond said cutting red tape could boost investment.
“It’s governance and bureaucracy. The layers of government can be quite hard to navigate… It’s just getting through the bureaucratic process, but equally knowing that contracts will be honoured, bills will be paid.
“There is still a bit of convincing for us to do when it comes to Irish businesses because there is hesitancy in relation to governance and bureaucracy.”
He said his government’s investment promotion agencies were helping companies establish a presence in Africa by guiding them through the correct channels. They also offered African firms help in navigating Ireland’s laws and requirements if they wanted to invest.
We’ve been fortunate over recent years to maximise EU trade deals to massively increase trading relations with sSoutheast Asia. They are all very far away… Africa is not that far away.
— Neale Richmond, Irish minister of state for international development & diaspora
The tariffs policies of the new US administration provided an incentive for Ireland to strengthen trade relations with Africa and other regions.
Boosting trade with Africa made sense given the growth potential of the continent, its sizeable market and its relative proximity.
“We’ve been fortunate over recent years to maximise EU trade deals to massively increase trading relations with Southeast Asia. They are all very far away… Africa is not that far away,” Richmond said.
The trade conference — organised by Ireland’s department of foreign affairs & trade — brought together more than 400 political and government leaders, policymakers and business representatives from across Africa and Ireland.
According to figures provided by the department, total trade between Ireland and African countries grew 7.9% from €2.4bn (R50bn) in 2023 to €2.6bn in 2024. Trade in services stood at €6.1bn in 2023.
Ireland’s agri-food exports to Africa were valued at €914m in 2024, up 7% from 2023 levels.
Its five largest export markets in Africa in 2023 were South Africa (€388m), Egypt (€279m), Morocco (€224m), Guinea (€152m) and Algeria (€126m). That year Ireland exported whiskey worth €46m to South Africa and imported platinum to the value of €124m.
Niamh Smyth, the Irish minister of trade promotion, told the conference that Enterprise Ireland — a state agency that supports companies in expanding their global footprint — views Africa as a continent of opportunity.
"[It is] working with African pathfinders to create trusted advisers in each region who provide boots on the ground to better service Irish enterprises that are already doing business on the continent, and those looking to expand into it.”
She said Ireland’s global trade was running at €1.2-trillion, and continued growth would depend on geographic diversification. “We see strong economic relations with the African continent as a key part of that overall approach.”
Smyth said while the global multilateral trading system was facing headwinds, Ireland believed in openness to trade and positioning itself as the gateway to Europe.
“Ireland, as a small exporting nation, is reliant on our ability to trade on friendly terms with the rest of the world and therefore openness to trade is essential to Ireland’s progress as a nation,” she added.
“Ireland is committed to strengthening its collaborations between Irish enterprise and African partners.”
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