So much of the news from Africa is so discouraging that it’s easy to overlook the real progress unfolding there. There’s high-profile philanthropy from the Gates Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative, of course, as well as quieter efforts by people like Mark Schwartz, a former Goldman Sachs partner who is now chair of MissionPoint Capital Partners. We met the other day and he told me just a bit about the great work he’s doing with Harvard Medical School to help AIDS patients in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa—it’s so low key that you can’t find it on the web. Then there are groups like the Acumen Fund and Trickle Up (nepotism alert!), where my daughter Sarah works on microenterprise programs in West and East Africa. All encouraging.
What’s even more encouraging is to see African businesses starting to thrive. That’s the topic of this week’s Sustainability column, which looks at a private equity fund called Emerging Capital Partners that has done very well by investing in Africa.
Here’s how it begins:
Read the news about civil war in Kenya, unrest in Chad, or genocide in Darfur, and you could conclude that Africa is no place to invest money.
But behind the headlines lies business opportunity. Africa’s economy is growing at 5 to 6% a year. Inflation is down. Prices are rising for commodities like oil, copper and gold.
Like all emerging markets, Africa is a risky place to invest but “the perceived risk is greater than the actual risk,” says Tom Gibian, the chief executive of Emerging Capital Partners (ECP), a private equity firm based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on Africa.
The firm has invested more than $1.2 billion in several Africa funds since 1999. It has invested in 48 companies, exited from 18, recouped more than $600 million and posted an average return of three times its initial investment. “The financial performance has been terrific,” Gibian says.
You can read the rest here.
African continent need experienced investors, especially those of industrialised countries, but also according to african behaviour and misunderstanding of technological progress of some africans, these specialised industries need closely to collaborate with africans to achieve their goals. In Rwanda in particular, there are a lot of opportunities of investment, the sector of investments is still virgin, Rwandan coffee needs experienced enterprises, so you are welcome and we are ready to help you in all situations. Thank you.
having spent four years as a journalist in kenya, i was very excited to see this piece several months ago on ZDNet:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6200147.html, about Kenya trying to get a piece of the outsourcing pie. that was before the violence broke out, so i wonder how those call-centers are doing now. in any case, your point is a good one: let’s hear more about biz development in africa. thanks for the post
I am so happy to see such a positive article about investing in Africa. The international media is doing harm to the people of Africa by focusing on only the negatives and treating Africa as a single country of suffering people. This is nefarious of the media. Africa needs investment from multinational corporations like Asia during their trouble times. This is a global economy in which all trades should be free and fair. A prosperous Africa will reduce sicknesses and civil wars. Thanks for this articlr.
I agree! I think people commonly assume that poor people are lazy and unintelligent. But that truly is not the case! One particular industry that has done very well in Africa, and that has made a substantial positive impact, is microlending/microfinance. The success of this effort goes to show that not only are the African people intelligent, but they are very hard workers.
Once they have been given an opportunity, the African people are very willing to work extremely hard to pay back the money from the microloans so that they can receive larger loans to improve their business, and more importantly, their family well-being. More and more African children are able to attend school because of the entrepreneurship of their parents with the help of a microloan. This result, of course, feeds back into the chain- educating the children will help the continent continue to advance well into the future.
Some great microfinance websites I have come across are:
http://www.kiva.org
http://www.microplace.com
http://www.grameenfoundation.org