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Business Daily: Africa’s Middlemen: Rent-seekers or cultural brokers?

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07/11/2022 GMT

Africa’s Middlemen: Rent-seekers or cultural brokers?

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Africa’s Middlemen: Rent-seekers or cultural brokers?

Are Africa’s middlemen a crucial part of business transactions or a distraction?

Are Africa's middlemen predatory rent-seekers or cultural brokers who are crucial to the economy? We hear from those doing business with middlemen every day to find out more.

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

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