The release of Botswana’s stringent cannabis regulations in January and the announcement by Ghana late last year of exorbitant hemp license fees, is a sad reflection of cannabis leadership on the continent.
Twelve African countries have partially legalized cannabis for medical and or industrial use with South Africa and Morocco being the only ones entertaining some development of a local cannabis economy.
Africa’s Cannabis Policies are All About Earning Forex
Elsewhere in Africa, cannabis policy has been singularly export-focused and capital hungry. Zimbabwe is a typical example – it’s strategy is to add value to exports by processing biomass rather than developing a cohesive domestic strategy that would incorporate small-scale farmers and a local market.
Cannabiz Africa guest columnist Lee Hymers pulls no punches in his assessment that worldwide cannabis policy is skewed in favour of Big Pharma: “a global system designed to monopolise cannabis under the guise of regulation”.
Writing in Cannabiz Africa, he says: “Wherever cannabis has been legalised, the pitch has sounded familiar: jobs, rural upliftment, new revenue, and patient access. Politicians spoke of transformation. Investors were told to expect a sunrise industry. Farmers were promised a future beyond criminalisation.
“But years later, the results look eerily alike. Farmers excluded. Patients priced out. Communities sidelined. Corporates consolidating power. The details differ, but the pattern is unmistakable. This is not failure. It is the playbook.
UCT academic Simon Howell has studied the cannabis landscape in South Africa and Zimbabwe and found similarities that are applicable to the rest of the continent.
“Our research found that cannabis reform has continued old patterns of unfairness. For example, we found that medicinal cannabis production is currently an exclusive business which only well-off businesses can participate in. Farmers who traditionally cultivated cannabis and sold it when it was still illegal have not been included in the new cannabis industry.”
Hymers writes: “In the global South, cannabis is leveraged as aid theatre. Governments promise rural upliftment to development agencies and foreign investors. Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Malawi—each was rolled out as a showcase for donor goodwill.
Cannabis Development in the Developing World is All About Optics
“But licences went almost exclusively to foreign-backed corporates and elites. In Malawi, licence fees are openly pegged to fund the regulator, putting them far beyond the reach of local farmers. In Zimbabwe, renewal costs alone could cripple a small grower. And in Lesotho, the first licences went to foreign firms while local communities remained criminalised.
“Here, cannabis reform was never about development. It was about optics. A bargaining chip to unlock donor funding while keeping real change at bay.”
Silvio Bonomelli of Green Gold Global says the main challenge facing the development of cannabis in Africa can be traced back to the mindset of the continent’s policy-makers:
“They are missing the main opportunity, which is developing local markets” he told a Cheeba Africa webinar in December 2025.
“But it’s the same story wherever I go in the Third World, from Asia to Latin America, the focus is on exports. It’s as if the local markets are invisible”. This sentiment was echoed by webinar host, Cheeba Africa’s Trenton Birch, who’s closing remarks summed it all up: “Africa will only really benefit economically from cannabis if it legalizes general adult use”.
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