Africa’s Middlemen: Rent-seekers or cultural brokers?
Are Africa’s middlemen a crucial part of business transactions or a distraction?
Business Daily · BBC World Service
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Show Notes
Middlemen are intermediaries who facilitate business interactions for a commission, but in Africa their role is more complex. Africa's middlemen divide opinion on whether they are predatory rent-seekers or invisible but ever present cultural brokers who are actually crucial to the economy.
We hear from local businessman Bola Omololu - based in Abeokuta, southwest Nigeria, and Tony Alabi an architect also based in Nigeria, in the commercial capital of Lagos. They share their experiences of interacting with middlemen.
Cocoa farmer Dimeji Green holds middlemen directly responsible for the dire conditions of farmers in the multi-billion pounds industry whilst Josephine Favre of the African association of vertical farming thinks middlemen are actually necessary for the economy to thrive.
Presenter / producer: Peter MacJob Image: Bolarinwa Omololu; Credit: Bolarinwa Omololu