Is Africa missing out on a healthy, financial dose in marijuana business?

Workers pick leaves from cannabis plants inside a greenhouse in Lesotho. PHOTO | AFP

Cannabis could become Africa’s forbidden green gold, as African governments open up to the cultivation and processing of the stimulant for medicinal use.

Southern Africa presently leads in the adoption of the crop, with central and eastern Africa on its coat-tails in the race to secure a slice of the $345 billion global market, according to analysts New Frontier Data.