In the last ten years, Turkey has been trying to strengthen its economic and political ties with Africa. It has signed bilateral and multilateral trade agreements with more than 40 African countries, has embassies in 39 countries, and has 31 business councils to develop trade relations. Moreover, TİKA (Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency), Turkey’s aid agency, operates in many African countries and funds various social and economic development projects. The number of Turkish investors making direct investments in the African countries has thus been increasing as well.

The agreements between Turkey and Africa are focused on achieving these strategic goals:

1. Transferring knowledge and technologies to the African countries while improving production capacities and the productivity of these countries
2. Creating strong social relations through student exchange programs, trade councils, and relations between the universities in Turkey and the African countries
3. Developing strong trade relations from which Turkey and the African countries can both benefit
4. Increasing the investments in the African countries and improving the labor markets
5. Avoiding double taxation
6. Giving the opportunity to the African people to be a part of the modern world

The trade volume between the two countries has reached almost $100 billion in recent years. Since 1972, Turkish companies have completed 1,202 projects in Africa. Egypt, South Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, and Sudan are some of the African countries Turkey has strong relations with. African countries account for nearly 10% of Turkish international trade volumes as well, while the foreign direct investments made by the Turkish investors in Africa are around $55 billion. These statistics indicate that Turkey has created an important trade bridge with the African countries in the last couple of years.

However, although the Turkish government has declared that it is improving relations with Africa, there are political conflicts between Turkey and some African countries that still need to be resolved. Egypt, Sudan, and Libya are three countries that Turkey needs to fix relations with. After the coup in Egypt, the Turkish Diplomacy blamed President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for breaking the democracy in the country. Thus, Egypt and Turkey did not have direct diplomacy for several years after the coup. Similar issues have occurred between Libya, Sudan, and Turkey as well. Fortunately, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has recently declared a new diplomatic policy to fix the relations with these countries. Considering that the Turkish economy has been going through various troubles in recent times, fixing relations with Africa is a must.

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