South Africa Looks to Cannabis, Hemp Industry to Create Jobs

South Africa will seek to harness a multibillion dollar cannabis and hemp industry in a bid to create as many 130,000 jobs and lure foreign investment as it grapples with record unemployment.

Africa’s most industrialized nation plans to streamline the “regulatory processes so that the hemp and cannabis sector can thrive like it is in other countries such as Lesotho,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his state-of-the-nation-address to lawmakers in Cape Town on Thursday.