Chilliwack (Eric Welsh UFV) – As Canada navigates a changing trade relationship with the United States, a University of the Fraser Valley professor says there’s a massive opportunity just waiting to be seized. Dr. Edward Akuffo suggests the next frontier in Canadian trade should be Africa and he’s made a compelling case for it in two recently published federal government reports.
Akuffo, who has also written a book on the topic, played a key role as a witness in a House of Commons document released in 2024, and contributed to a follow-up report that was released last month (December 2025) by the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The new 61-page report continues to urge the federal government to make Africa a strategic priority and do it quickly as other nations eye the continent.
“Canada is at least two decades behind when it comes to broadening and deepening its relationship with the African continent,” Akuffo noted. “Without significant effort and a serious commitment, Canada risks becoming a peripheral player in that area of the world.”
Figures in the 2025 report, supplied by the African Development Bank (ADB), estimate that Africa’s population will nearly double by 2050, rising from 1.4 to 2.5 billion. The ADB suggests Africa is expected to be home to 13 of the world’s top 20 fastest growing economies from 2025.
And yet, Africa accounted for just one per cent of Canadian merchandise trade in 2024. Akuffo suggests that the Canadian government still views the continent as underdeveloped and unstable, needing policing and charity more than investment.
It is, he suggests, a view that needs to change.
“For over seven decades of formal diplomatic relations with African states, Canadian governments have approached Africa as a place of insignificant geostrategic value. This is largely due to the portrayals of the African continent as economically poor and conflict-ridden,” Akuffo says. “Yet this perception doesn’t measure squarely with current reality of a continent that is primed for takeoff.”
The report presents 21 recommendations, including an increase in direct investment — Canada invested $12 billion in 2024 — and the bolstering of Export Development Canada, the Trade Commissioner Service, and other tools designed to deepen Canadian commercial engagement in Africa.
Akuffo suggests the investor confidence could be boosted by creating a fund designed to provide risk capital for private investments in Africa.
He says international credit rating agencies have recently been heavily criticized for exaggerating the risks of doing business in Africa. Investments come with risks, and he acknowledges the African continent has its fair share. But Canada made a significant shift in its economic policy toward Africa under the Jean Chrétien government in 2005 when it established the Canada Investment Fund for Africa. This fund, aside from providing risk capital for private sector development in Africa, also helped strengthen Canada’s economic diplomacy on the continent.
“It can be argued that those investments have contributed to unlocking economic opportunities in the extractive industry in Africa where Canada’s mining assets which was valued at $6 billion in 2005 and is now valued at $39 billion 2026,” Akuffo notes.
The fund was discontinued under Prime Minister Stephen Harper but given the rising economic opportunities on the continent — and tariff diplomacy of the Trump administration among other factors — Akuffo believes it will make strategic sense for the current government to establish something similar to support Canadian investors as they explore economic opportunities on the continent.
While the report is titled ‘Seizing a Strategic Opportunity,’ Akuffo says it’s important that Canada not treat Africa like something to be exploited. The report notes there are approximately 1.3 million people of African origin living in Canada and recommends people-to-people links as the path to success.
“A Canada—Africa strategy must be resilient and adaptable, a truly multi-partisan product that will outlive specific governments and have demonstrable public support,” he said.
Akuffo anticipates the strategy could include educational exchanges. UFV exemplifies Canada’s educational expertise in agriculture through the Food and Agriculture Institute and the university’s leading role in the Sustainable Food Systems for Canada platform.
“The Senate report has clearly called on the Canadian government to strengthen educational partnerships between Canadian institutions of higher learning and their African counterparts,” he says. “I think that this aligns with the spirit and goals of UFV internationalization efforts and therefore provides an opportunity for UFV to play a pivotal role in building knowledge and expertise that will sustain the Canada-Africa relationship going forward.”
