The Digital Pillar of the EU’s Nearshoring Strategy to Africa

Laurent Ulmann: Europe’s geopolitical imperative to secure its supply chains has intensified focus on Africa, notably through the European Union’s Global Gateway strategy. How do you assess the current stakes and SAP’s strategic role in connecting the EU and African economies?

 Emmanuel Lempert: Thank you. The stakes are profoundly strategic, moving beyond mere trade to establish shared resilience. What we are witnessing is the translation of political intent into measurable economic integration. The EU has committed €150 billion to the Africa-Europe Investment Package—a significant portion of the Global Gateway mobilization. This level of commitment underscores the EU’s recognition that its economic future is intrinsically linked to Africa’s stability and growth.

Economic interdependence is already evident. Europe is Africa’s first trade partner and Africa is critical to Europe’s twin transition, providing essential critical raw materials needed for European green and digital industries. 

However, investments alone don’t guarantee resilience. The challenge is execution: how do we convert these strategic investments into tangible, digitally optimized supply chains? This is where SAP comes in. Our strategic role is to provide the digital backbone that ensures secure, transparent, and high-performing connections. Without these links, there is a risk of funding siloed infrastructure projects. SAP can be viewed as a digital enabler for the Global Gateway.

 Laurent Ulmann: Let’s focus on execution and tangible projects. Global Gateway involves complex corridor projects, such as the 1,800-kilometer Lobito Corridor. How can SAP contribute to make sure that physical infrastructure investments translate into real operational efficiencies?

 Emmanuel Lempert: This is the nexus of physical infrastructure and digital intelligence. The core value we provide through our solutions is transforming friction-prone trade routes into standardized, predictable supply chains.

The issue is friction. African logistics are hampered by structural inefficiencies that severely impact competitiveness. The World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) highlights these weaknesses. Without closing this digital gap, the geographical advantage of nearshoring is eroded by operational risk.

SAP solutions standardize documentation and provide real-time tracking, directly addressing low LPI scores. By digitizing customs and intermodal transfers along strategic corridors—like the Lobito rail line—we can significantly enhance the line’s efficiency. This directly supports the Global Gateway objective of facilitating and reducing the time and cost of goods in transit.

Furthermore, digital standardization is vital for investment diversification. Current Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa is hyper-concentrated. By implementing standardized digital platforms, we can establish the governance, visibility, and control necessary to de-risk investment in new geographies.

 Laurent Ulmann: The success of these corridors depends on cross-border regulatory harmonization among several African states. How can SAP’s digital backbone facilitate collaboration between customs and regional agencies to digitize and unify administrative processes, preventing logistics gains from being canceled by border bureaucracy?

Emmanuel Lempert: That is fundamental. We don’t deliver just logistics tools; we deliver regional trade facilitation engines. Our technology acts as a de facto standard for documentation. By providing a single, unalterable platform (thanks to the blockchain layer), we can enable every national custom or tax authority to access the same certified data instantly. This makes border inspections faster, more transparent, and reduces the need for redundant paperwork, directly supporting the ambitious goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

 Laurent Ulmann: Supply chain risk now includes ethical and environmental compliance. How do you secure the supply of billions of euros worth of critical raw materials and navigate complex EU environmental regulations? How do you embed ethics and circularity directly into IT systems?

 Emmanuel Lempert: We view strict EU regulations not as obstacles, but as critical drivers of competitive advantage for African partners. Today, security means verifiable sustainability.

Regarding critical raw materials, the need for auditable proof of origin is non-negotiable. Our blockchain-enabled solutions capture and store material genealogy data. This creates an immutable digital ledger that provides the technical evidence required for due diligence compliance, mitigating ethical and legal risks associated with critical raw materials flow.

The same principle applies to the circular economy. EU Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations are financially punitive if ignored. Our Cloud and AI solutions allow manufacturers to embed circularity principles from the design phase, providing the granular visibility needed to optimize product design and reduce exposure to measurable EPR costs.

Furthermore, decarbonization is a key EU expectation. Our AI-powered predictive analytics solutions don’t just track materials; they allow us to model and quantify the carbon footprint of every step of manufacturing and transport. By integrating Environmental Key Performance Indicators (E-KPIs) into our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, we empower businesses to optimize routes and production modes to reduce emissions. This is the level of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) transparency that investors and regulators demand today.

 Laurent Ulmann: The adoption of world-class digital platforms can be costly for African SMEs, which are the local economy’s backbone. How does SAP ensure its platforms are financially accessible and scalable for local SMEs involved in the supply chain, ensuring that this growth is truly inclusive?

 Emmanuel Lempert: Inclusion must be technological. The answer lies in Cloud and AI services and modularity. We operate on subscription-based licensing models that significantly reduce the need for heavy initial Capital Expenditure (CAPEX). This allows SMEs to pay only for the capacity and services they actively consume, shifting costs to manageable Operating Expenditure (OPEX). In addition, we have solutions specifically designed for SMEs. Crucially, we work with our local partner ecosystem to create pre-configured, sector-specific packages, enabling quick and low-cost integration into the digital networks of their larger European clients.

 Laurent Ulmann: Deploying centralized digital systems along strategic corridors creates a dependency and a potential target. How do you ensure the cyber resilience of these platforms against threats targeting supply chain disruption? And critically: how is the data sovereignty of African nations guaranteed?

 Emmanuel Lempert: Trust is the bedrock of our strategy; if digital is the pillar, security is the foundation. Our Cloud platforms and AI solutions are built to operate on global security standards, incorporating data redundancy and segmentation. Our solutions are themselves a de-risking mechanism by standardizing communications and limiting traditional vulnerabilities.

Regarding data sovereignty, we are highly sensitive to local laws. For Africa, this translates into developing our Cloud services through local or regional data centers where feasible and using technical architectures that ensure critical operational data is stored and managed in full compliance with the partner country’s regulatory requirements. This is a prerequisite for building a durable, mutual trust partnership.

 Laurent Ulmann: Finally, let’s address human capital. How does SAP tackle the skills gap, and how does this support inclusive growth?

 Emmanuel Lempert: Human capital is the foundation of our inclusive growth strategy. Technology is inert without the local expertise to deploy, maintain, and innovate from it. For example, we directly address this through our SAP Young Professionals Program. This initiative has already trained and certified hundreds of young talents as SAP Associate Consultants across African countries.

These intensive programs inject certified expertise directly into the local market. This provides the necessary assurance to European companies that a skilled workforce is available on the ground when they seek to decentralize production.

Our certified consultants accelerate tech adoption and reduce the reliance on expensive expatriate expertise, supporting the shift from raw resource extraction toward sophisticated manufacturing.

 Laurent Ulmann: Looking toward 2030, what is the most critical action policymakers and businesses should undertake to maximize the success of this nearshoring strategy?

 Emmanuel Lempert: The crucial step is to mandate digital standards as a condition for investments. Policymakers must move beyond merely funding physical infrastructure and focus on harmonization within the corridors. This ensures every project not only delivers a physical asset but also contributes to the clean, standardized data needed for risk mitigation and performance measurement.

By making European technology standards and local talent the norm, we will ensure the nearshoring movement is resilient, verifiable, and mutually prosperous for the EU and Africa.