Africans should make their own soap, says World Bank
Red tape accused to restricting domestic production in Africa
The president of the World Bank wants African countries to reduce red tape strangling business so local companies can make small simple items currently imported, notably soap.
Robert B Zoellick told the Washington DC-based Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars African governments should “remove the barriers to producing these goods domestically and to local entrepreneurship, while creating conditions for outside investors to shift production to Africa”. This would prevent “small, inexpensive items, such as soap [from having to be] imported,” said Zoellick.