Africa: the ” New Frontier ” for investment opportunities ?   by Harley McKenson

Taken out of context, this can seem amusing or shocking.However, it is a question worth asking.
While the world remained fixated on the Greek debt crisis and its effect on the more industrialized countries, Africa has been engaged in substantial reforms and restructuring over the past few decades, and has enjoyed the greatest economic growth than in any other part of the world. Today, Africa is a more attractive place to invest than it was before. Its lack of integration into the global financial and industrial networks is protecting it from the current financial and economic crisis that is hitting the world.
According to the latest IMF forecasts, the region is expected to show a record growth rate in 2011. For example, according to the World Bank data, Ghana could easily record powerful growth of more than 20% by the end of the year and has become a middle-income emerging country. The Rwandan economy is one of the fastest growing in Africa and indeed the world and has the potential to achieve its maximum sustainable growth. Angola, thats constitutes an emerging oil and financial power, is actively in a state of growth.
The current financial crisis also gives the representatives of Africa’s economic authorities an opportunity to lay the basis for a more employment-intensive pattern of economic growth and a more rapid labor market.
In China, Africa’s economic development and investment potential have been in the spotlight for a long time. The China-Africa Development Fund (The CADFund), with a sphere of activity covering almost the whole of Africa, is evidence of a marked upsurge of China’s interest in the dark continent, which possesses the world’s richest mineral deposits of copper and cobalt, as well as abundant reserves of gold, diamonds, coltan, timber, oil, gas and other resources such as bauxite, cadmium, coal, lead, iron ore, manganese, silver, zinc and uranium. In the 1990s, the international expansion of Chinese companies started on the African continent. Projects in Africa also cooperated on agriculture and health as early as the 1980s. This was particularly evident in 2000-2010. Chinese construction, mining, oil and telecommunications companies are active in practically all needy countries. First of all, China has increased its investments and created trade networks across Africa in response to its enormous demand for raw materials. The Chinese rush for these raw materials and oil has contributed to the rapid economic growth in several countries such as Angola and Nigeria. Some western companies’ decision to pull out of Africa has opened up opportunities for new investments from China, India and Gulf countries. Chinese authorities have realized that Africa has been changing. China has become the largest new investor, trader, buyer and aid donor in a number of important African countries.
Nowadays, Africa offers one of the vast emerging consumer markets with a population of 1 billion that is opening up to investors around the world and possesses the surface area twice the size of the United States.A new middle class is being born in African cities with basic needs such as eating, housing, dressing, health, information, communication, education and domestic appliances. It is evident that oil is not the only opportunity on the continent.The successful companies are those that know how to serve the changing needs of these new consumers. The most daring entrepreneurs can increase market share in emerging countries of Africa. A lot of projects are springing up across the continent. Some sectors of the future are destined for local markets.These sectors with future potential consist of agro-industries, solar energy, housing, finance, mobile phones, gold mining and advertising industries. Many business projects for Africa are available online at http://www.McKenson-Invest.com .These online proposals provide evidence of the African entrepreneurial spirit.
Admittedly, there are huge economic disparities between African countries.But Africa has potential to become one of the major economic actors in the world. However the continent needs to urgently face other challenges. These include investment in high-quality education systems, tax reduction measures, simplification of administrative procedures involved in setting up a company and getting back business after bankruptcy, measures which stimulate gradual integration of the informal sector into the formal economy,the merging of business start-up support structures in order to identify and better understand the motivations for entrepreneurs, inculcation of the entrepreneurial mindset and especially improvements in political and democratic governance.
One notices also that great efforts are being made to promote democracy, good governance and human rights in some countries. Ghana is today one of the most stable countries in the region and can hold itself up as an example of the democratic system, because no problem exists regarding the alternation of political parties in Accra. Mauritius, Tanzania and Mozambique have also embraced peaceful multiparty political systems.International transparency reports place Botswana as the least corrupt country in the region. The nation is considered as a model of parliamentary democracy and has high governance indicators. Namibia is generally celebrated as one of prime examples of democracy.
This era of rebirth for Africa will set an example for all African countries.

About the Author

I am the founder and CEO of http://www.McKenson-Invest.com, an online platform connecting investors with entrepreneurs
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