I Know It’s Real

By Asoka Ranaweera

The writer is the founder and CEO of a company that advises clients on investing and developing projects in West, East and Central Africa.

It was not that long ago that Africa hardly registered in the minds of international investors in general and American investors in particular. Today investment prospects in Africa are more or less discussed even in the main stream business media a phenomena that I began to observe about two and a half years ago.

For most people the mere mention of Africa brings to mind prominently Sudan and the conflict in Darfur or Mr. Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe and/or both often in the same sentence. With overwhelming news coverage devoted to Sudan and Zimbabwe and several more such trouble spots is it any wonder that American’s would know any better?

Talk about Africa and business, and more often than not investors ask about oil and gas, and natural resources. Yet up until the recession, which affected Africa later than most other regions, up to 40% of Africa’s gross continental product was concentrated in non-resource rich countries such as Rwanda. And Africa, largely away from the attention of the main stream American media was enjoying one of its most sustained periods of economic growth.

Africa the last region to enter recession is forecast by the International Monetary fund (IMF) as one of the first to exit. There are many reasons and explanations for why Africa is experiencing a more sustained period of socio-economic transformation and these include but are not limited to:

A more disciplined approach to managing and coordinating economic policy by finance ministries and central banks, the rise of China and its involvement in Africa and what is now one of the longest bull markets in commodities, which of course Africa produces in abundance.

Quite often I am asked by my American peers whether Africa’s growth is ‘for real?’ and ‘if so why?’ Setting aside the standard academic replies some of, which I have listed above, it, does not take me very long to respond with a firm set of answers most of, which are rooted in my life and work experience in Africa.

The Africa that I lived in, is not the Africa that we know of today, in fact it’s not even close. I remember a time of intense superpower rivalry played out across the continent as capitalism and socialism fought for ideological supremacy more often than not at the expense of innocent African civilians in amongst countries such as Angola and Mozambique.

I recall the consolidation of power by Africa’s big men many of whom fought for independence but then just could not give up power to the people in whose name they struggled for so long.

And my memory takes me back to times when even having access to the most basic of consumer goods and services were difficult if not nearly impossible because of the severe underdevelopment of economies many straining under the weight of state run command type economies so popular in those early days of independence.

About two years ago I visited a young African owned marketing company in Silver Spring, Maryland. The company’s main business is to market African goods and services in North America. During our conversation I asked the president of the company whether or not the World Bank had or was providing him funding to develop his outreach and marketing programs from Africa.

The president gave me a disapproving look and said that he eschewed any funding from any multilateral or bilateral agency of any kind and that he and his clients were doing everything possible to avoid any type of World Bank assistance and he finished his reply by saying, ‘they the World Bank have been part of the problem, we African’s should rely on ourselves for the solution.’

On the face of it and looking back on my conversation I should have known better to have kept my mouth firmly shut for an important reason, and that is because I have numerous friends and counterparts throughout Africa whose attitude is let’s roll up our sleeves, put our heads down and lets go about transforming our countries and lets do it in our own African way.

My friends both men and women, are highly educated and are schooled either in their own countries or in Europe and/or the U.S. They are accomplished professional’s who have returned home; many of them having worked for several years abroad, bringing back with them knowledge of international business, non-governmental organizations, academia and politics.

They are ambitious and have come back with a sense of purpose to fill the void in Africa that was under-confident and over-reliant on outsiders as represented by the World Bank/IMF, international non-governmental organizations and bilateral donor agencies not to mention numerous multinationals with a long history in Africa.

The first wave of these men and women entered their countries in the middle to late 1990s and they set the stage for the incredible boom that Africa experienced especially between 2000 and 2008. They advanced economic growth by building from the ground up and/or improving existing businesses, whether these were in finance, media or consumer goods. They helped spread the cellular revolution and opened up their domestic markets by competing directly with established incumbents whether foreign or domestic.

Rather than letting governments get in the way of them, they found ways in, which to work with and/or in some cases work around governments not necessarily may I add in nefarious ways, enabling them to release a spirit of entrepreneurial creativity and activity that made local economies blossom.

The first wave was followed by subsequent waves of men and women resulting in the creation of a permanent foundation for change and transformation that is now not only entrenched but also spreading throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. So when people ask me whether or not what we are witnessing in Africa is real instead of thinking about policy-frame works, the rise of countries far-away and the complexities of geopolitics, I simply think of the hopes, dreams, desires and above all the actions of the many young African’s that I know and work with, and I know what is happening is for real.

In subsequent posts I will examine individually the roles of China, Brazil, Russia and Turkey in Africa, and what their involvement means both to them and to Africans.