The Growing Cannabis Industry In Africa
The African cannabis industry looks green with many potentials that will attract growers and investors alike. Information from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime shows that the highest levels of cannabis production worldwide take place on the African continent. About 25% (1500 metric tons) of cannabis cultivated in 2005 was estimated to have grown in Africa.
Although cannabis use has a rich culture in this part of the world, the explosion of the market came in 2017 when Lesotho (read our Lesotho country report here) became the first country to grant an administrative license for the commercial cultivation of cannabis for scientific and medical purposes. Since then, the continent has continued to experience a high level of adoption, with countries like Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Morocco, Malawi, South Africa, and Zimbabwe following suit. While Africa is taking its baby steps in cannabis legalization, the market is expected to hit $7.1 billion in 2023.
See our cannabis country report on South Africa and Zimbabwe here.
As cannabis legalization continues to grow in Africa, cannabis laws seem to experience a major setback. Each country of course sets its rules and regulations guiding its cultivation, distribution, possession, transportation, advertising, marketing, and consumption. Understanding these laws requires a lot of hard work as investors will have to sift through a sea of papers to know what is obtainable in each location and how to use it to their advantage. This is where the role of a good compliance software like Cannavigia comes into the picture.
Cannavigia is a Europe-based compliance software that traces, secures, and simplifies transactions in the cannabis supply network. It comes with a system that is transparent in its dealings and provides interlinked modules for the cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of cannabis products.
Africa has a climate that favors the growth of cannabis, and its proximity to Europe shows it can be a major supplier of hemp to the region. There is a growing cannabis market in Europe that can be filled with African cannabis. Our Europe-based compliance software can go a long way in creating a synergy between the African and European cannabis market, thus helping to remove the bottleneck associated with cannabis laws and regulations. Since a good percentage of cannabis produced in Africa end up in Europe, there is a need to create software that can marry the two continents for business.
Why is using a cannabis compliance software important?
Each country has its personalized cannabis laws. For instance, Rwanda only allows the cultivation of cannabis for export, while Ghana frowns at the cultivation of marijuana (not more than 0.3% THC). Understanding these little disparities goes a long way in affecting your cannabis business in any country of choice.
Apart from the reasons stated above, a compliance software comes in handy in providing the following benefits to farmers and investors.
Sharing of information along the value chain – transparency is king
A good compliance software will provide information about the specific details of a specific cannabis batch cultivation. Cannavigia helps bridging the gap between African planters and European investors as well as different buyers groups. It can create a synergy between the regulations obtainable in the field and how they have to be applied for any kind of export. It also assists farmers with information on cannabis cultivation while providing investors with relevant information concerning the cannabis plant.
Cannavigia keeps you cool when dealing with dozens of strains and phenotypes
Africa is home to some of the world’s best cannabis strains. These plants are bred under special conditions that make them particularly unique in their composition. With a compliance software like Cannavigia, interested investors can gain hands-on access to a vast array of information by just scanning QR codes of their bought batches to get behind the secrets of these special varieties. On top of this, Cannavigia helps to protect intellectual property regarding genetics and final product active ingredients compositions. With our upcoming custom parameters feature, users can keep track on individual plant traits in any selection or breeding process and can go back through a plants heritage.
Connect cultivators with investors and buyers:
The bulk of cannabis cultivated in Africa is for export. One of the best things that can happen to the African cannabis industry is getting hold of a software that provides information on plant breeding and cannabinoid content. By scanning QR codes, interested buyers will know how the cannabis plant was bred and its composition.
Access to Cannabis regulations
Gaining access to cannabis laws in a location can be cumbersome, especially when you are not there. The compliance software helps to document necessary steps along the value chain. We support you with all questions regarding regulations and the integration of compliance processes.
What to look out for in a cannabis compliance software
Identifying the best cannabis strains/growing parameters can be very stressful. This is often accompanied by other challenges such as cannabis laws, alternating weather conditions, and more. If you are set to launch into the market and require the assistance of a compliance software, here are a few factors to consider when choosing one.
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Transparency
The information provided by the software must be transparent and accurate since many buyers will base their cannabis investment on information this software provides. For this, a good compliance software must secure transparency and data integrity which we do by using a live audit trail via blockchain.
- Excellent User Interface/ Ease of use
A good software should be easy to use and navigate – not only for IT professionals, but most important growers and farm workers. It should allow users to obtain the best information in no time. It must feature a design that is not distracting but improves productivity und keeps time spending with documentation on a minimum.
- Features /modules provided
This is the most important aspect of a compliance software. The features/modules must address your current business needs and should come with excellent features that make your work easier. We are proud to offer you a true seed to sale software solution to document goods in events, cultivation, processing, sample testing, packaging and distribution of your cannabis products to create a seamless batch material record and certificate.
Bottom line: Cannabis in Africa
Investing in the cannabis industry can come with controlled risk by using the right tools. The industry holds a lot of promise, with the market cap estimated to hit over $100 billion in the United States alone. Cannabis holds a lot of potentials and industrial applications that cuts across serving as therapeutic agents to a source of fuel or raw material for industries in fashion or construction. Many entrepreneurs right now are aiming for getting some shares in this promising, yet difficult regulated industry. With Cannavigia we add a compliance tool to the cannabis value networks that can help governments, producers, processors, sales organizations and customers to navigate through the regulatory forests of this cannabis world – not only in Africa.
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