Procurement should not be measured by whether it secured the lowest price, but whether it creates resilience, enables growth and protects national competitiveness, South African Revenue Service (SARS) Commissioner Dr Johnstone Makhubu said.

Procurement and supply chain professionals must become architects of economic growth, infrastructure delivery, investment confidence and national competitiveness, if Africa is to realise its enormous economic potential, he said at the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) Southern Africa conference, on August 4.

In the midst of geopolitical instability, supply chain disruption, climate change, cyberthreats and shifting global trade patterns, procurement had fundamentally evolved from an operational support function into a strategic economic enabler capable of determining whether countries attract investment, accelerate infrastructure delivery, strengthen industrialisation, create jobs and improve national competitiveness.

Africa's economy is projected to grow by between 4% and 4.5% a year over the next decade, outpacing expected global growth, while, by 2050, the continent will be home to about one-quarter of the world's population.

However, this demographic and economic opportunity would only translate into sustained prosperity if governments and businesses build the infrastructure, institutions and supply chains capable of supporting that growth.

For example, with South Africa's planned R1.1-trillion public infrastructure programme over the medium term, procurement professionals would ultimately determine whether those investments became roads, ports, power stations and logistics infrastructure, or remained plans on paper, he said.

Further, CIPS Global CEO Ben Farrell said procurement professionals were operating at one of the most significant moments in the profession's history.

“The world we knew has changed. Four decades of globalisation have gone. Regionalisation is accelerating, disruption has become a permanent feature of the global economy, and procurement professionals now find themselves at the centre of helping organisations navigate that uncertainty,” he said.

Procurement professionals are increasingly responsible not only for supplier relationships and value creation, but also for enterprise risk, environmental, social and governance, AI, organisational resilience and long-term strategic decision-making.

“We are at a defining moment where professions evolve. The responsibility of procurement has fundamentally changed, and the contribution procurement professionals will make over the next decade will be greater than at any point in our history.”