Headlines: Why Africa is not high on the agenda of most companies in the West

How We Made It In Africa - Charles Robertson, global chief economist at Renaissance Capital says the majority of business people in the West are not falling over themselves to invest in Africa. He discussed this and other issues with How we made it in Africa editor-in-chief Jaco Maritz.

Africa is currently attracting significant hype from certain quarters. As someone who’s based in the UK, how would you describe the interest from European companies to do business in the continent?
European businessmen are primarily focused firstly on Europe. Secondly, maybe on America. Thirdly, China. Fourthly, potentially other markets like Australia or India. Africa is not high on their agenda. And why? Because the whole continent of Africa’s GDP is under US$2 trillion – similar to Russia. So in terms of your world rankings of where you care about, Africa ranks low. And that $1.7 trillion of GDP in 2010 is split between over 50 countries. Each market in itself, except for South Africa, Nigeria and north Africa, is small. It is not easy to access and it takes a while for companies to begin to recognise the opportunities that are coming. In terms of getting new investments coming in, it is happening. You see Walmart buying Massmart so that they can get access to Sub-Saharan Africa. You see it in the telecoms world. Portfolio investors are getting more and more interested – people who buy equities and bonds. Africa is becoming something, which five years ago was ‘unknown’ and it is now ‘little-known’. And we are on our way to being quite ‘well-known’, but not yet. It takes time and the bigger these economies get, the more attention they will capture...More