David O Kuranga
Alongside the 70th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, African Investor Magazine teamed up with Reuters to hosts its annual African investment summit. The major theme for the event was to promote African integration and to attract investment to Africa in the area of infrastructure and energy.
While China’s economy has slowed considerably in the last quarter, delegates to the African Investor summit were not concerned. Most of the delegates were fully aware that Africa is its own largest trading partner, outstripping China and any other international trading partner.
Accordingly, removing barriers to regional investment, trade, and integration is the most effective way for Africa make-up for the loss of investment from China and from other parts of the world. Africa has begun to look inward for much of its development needs, and to harmonize strategies throughout the region.
All the leaders in attendance made their case for the investors present to come to their countries while their staffers passed out investment manuals and fielded inquiries from the private sector investors that were present. Ambassadors from several other countries were also present touting the investment potential of their respective countries. Institutional investors from all over the world, entrepreneurs, and investment advisors, CEO’s of some of the largest African banks, and regulators and officials were all in attendance. Investors representing billions in assets under-management were keen on identifying bankable projects and developing relationships in the countries that they would pursue investments in the coming year.
Noticeably absent from the summit were officials from the Nigerian government. The Nigerian president was yet to arrive in New York and no substantial official attended the major development meetings on Africa scheduled for the day.
International investors have begun to develop an appetite for African public-private initiatives and long-term infrastructure investment projects. In order to attract international capital, governments at all levels will need the capacity of project-develop and design internationally respected bankable projects. Project-development capacity is the key hindrance preventing global investment from reaching African projects.
Once governments develop bankable project plans, there is more than enough global capital to fund them. The summit was very useful in aiding public and private sector decision-makers to enhance the project-development capacity.
The major take-away decision-makers who ignore the importance of project development will miss-out on the wave of global investors eagerly looking for African projects to invest in.
*The author is the Managing Director and Principal of Kuranga and Associates, a full-service investment, political and economic risk consultancy, and asset management firm that specializes in Africa. He is also the author of The Power of Interdependence with Palgrave Macmillan Press.