Africa New World Investment Frontier
By Abdi Ali
Published December 7, 2018
With Africa currently home to five of the world’s fastest growing economies, is a continent of great opportunities.
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Giovanni Tria, an economist currently serving as Italy’s Minister for Economy and Finance, says the mother continent has five investment advantages:
- A huge land mass of 30 million square kilometres
- A huge amount of natural resources
- A fast-growing population
- Fewer conflicts and major developments in education, and
- An economy that has consistently expanded over the last 15 years, even though it still only accounts for 3% of global GDP.
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Indeed statistics by African Development Bank (AfDB) show that Consumer spending across Africa will reach US$2.5 trillion by 2030, while business-to-business investments will reach more than US$3.5 trillion over the same period.
Akinwumi Adesina, President of AfDB, says Africa’s ‘burgeoning middle class, rapid urbanisation and consumer demand’ will turn the continent into what he refers to as a ‘prime collective investment opportunity that cannot be ignored’.
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Adesina, like Tria, was speaking at a conference on Africa held in the Italian capital, Rome.
AfDB data shows that Italy, with US$11.6 billion in 2017, was the largest European investor on the continent, and the third largest after China and United Arab Emirates.
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Touching on the African migration crisis in Europe, Akinwumi Adesina noted, “I do not believe that the future of Africa’s youth lies in Europe. Neither does it lie at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The future of Africa’s youth is in Africa helping to grow its economy and employment opportunities.”
Consequently, AfDB says it has launched an initiative dubbed Jobs for Youth in Africa programme with the aim of creating 25 million jobs over a ten-year period. AfDB says it has also launched the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) to encourage financial institutions in Africa to lend to female entrepreneurs and businesses run by women.
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