EY said the Africa’s ‘rising narrative’, which was premised on assessed economic potentials in the continent is sustainable, as there are remarkable positive trends in the last few years.

While noting that uncertainties, which affect growth projections exist, it pointed out that Nigeria’s political trajectory, alongside other African economies, has become watershed in the region’s development picture.

The company’s team of experts, while speaking at EY’s consumer products and retail industry forum, with the theme: “Managing Fragmented Supply Chains in Africa,” noted that amid gloomy economic forecast, Africa, with its sub-Saharan region, is ahead of 22 economies in the 2015 projections and a force to reckon with globally.

The Lead Partner of EY Africa Business Centre, Mike Lalor, noted that consumer and retail products remained key to attracting Foreign Direct Investment in Nigeria and other sub-Saharan economies in Africa.

Citing examples in 2014 statistics, he however, noted that lingering market fragmentation, legal challenges, access to critical mass and exchange rates uncertainties are still major challenges in the region.

According to him, reaping huge returns in the assessed opportunity-filled continent through Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), the investors need to adopt purposeful and patient business strategies, as many multinationals have already been rewarded.

Lot in a presentation, pointed out that 10 sectors attracted huge FDI projects in the continent in 2014, with a shift towards the manufacturing sector, although it also showed 8.4 per cent year-on-year decline, while technology, media and telecommunications had a share of 19.6 per cent.

The financial sector followed with 18.1 per cent FDI; while retail and consumer products sector got 14.1 per cent, but topped all the sector with 35.5 per cent job creation; and real estate, hospitality and construction industry had eight per percent together.

The Partner and Director, Advisory Africa, EY, Wim Hoogedeure, said that as part of the company’s efforts to help its clients, it decided to go into key markets (Nigeria inclusive) to create a forum to share insights and learning to help them become commercially viable and competitive.

“We are here to give insight on how to approach the global markets. Integration in Africa has been an issue quiet different from the Europe. The challenges here also include low disposable income, which is difficult from manufacturers’ perspective. It is however prevalent in Emerging Markets,” he said.

The Senior Partner, Advisory Services, Bunmi Akinde, said: “Normally at EY, we are structured not only based on the solutions we provide, but also on the sectors we provide those solutions for. We get to know the sectors and the peculiarities in them.

“What we are giving out today is a product of great research for the consumer products and retail sector. This will increase their profitability through cost reduction and enable cumulative growth that would support the continent’s development,” she said.

The Executive Director, Advisory Service, Olayinka Situ, noted that supply chains are fragmented in the region and as investors look to increase investments, they see it as hampering their efforts.

“With the forum, as part of our contributions through research and applied solutions across the globe, we think we have lessons and strong statements that are applicable in our local environment.

“We at EY also see the consumer sector as a strong sector because in Nigeria we are a consumer market. We are building capacity by leveraging on our experience to build what we have here, bringing the ideas and solutions home,” he said.

Already in the Africa, there re records of multinationals that have defied the odds and now deepening their operations, like Vale, Coca-Cola, Eni, Airtel, ICBC, Barclays, GE, Gazprom, Walmart, Diageo, IBM and Tata, among others.

Coke, which has been in Africa since 1929, has also become the continent’s largest employer, with 65,000 employees and 160 plants and currently sells 9.1 billion litres of beverage yearly in Africa, with reported plans to invest $12 billion in the continent over the next 10 years.

Bharti acquired Zain’s assets across 16 African countries for $10.7b in 2010 and in 2011 alone, it invested more than $500 million into African operations, with revenues from Africa above $1 billion per quarter as at September 2011.

ICBC invested $5.5 billion for a 20 per cent stake in Africa’s largest bank- Standard Bank, but since then, the two banks have conducted over 100 projects together and value of financing agreements signed by ICBC is over $7 billion.

Barclays purchased a 55 per cent stake in Absa, one of Africa’s largest banks, for $4.5 billion in 2005 and last year, 15 per cent of Barclays’ income was from Africa, as the investment revenues from the continent grew by 17 per cent and pre-tax profit by 55 per cent to £1.1 billion.

GE’s business in Africa has grown from $700 million to $3.6b in revenues in the past few years, while revenues forecast is expected to grow at 10 to 15 per cent yearly.

It currently has 1500 employees in Africa, including a strategic appointment of Jay Ireland, former GE’s Head of Asset Management as President and CEO of GE Africa, to accelerate the company’s growth in the region.

GE recently signed Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigerian government to participate in a $10 billion power sector upgrade.

Gazprom also, has been scaling up its presence in Africa since making its first commercial African gas discovery in Algeria in 2010.

It is now active in several other African countries, including Libya, Namibia, Angola, Ethiopia and signed a $2.5 billion deal in Nigeria to establish a joint venture with state operated Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to develop, extract and transport gas in the country.

For Diageo, Africa represents its largest emerging market region in terms of net sales, with one in four of Diageo’s worldwide workforce employed in Africa.

IBM has been in Africa for over 50 years, but from 2005-2010, it has invested $300 million in the region, which has now significantly accelerated following the contract to operate Bharti Airtel’s IT operations in 16 African countries, with employees in 20 African countries.

But Situ added: “Integration is important in the continent and have remained a long standing issues in harnessing the huge potential, as it presents complexities for businesses, especially those looking to be pan-African.

“The issues of taxes, crossborder/registration and regionalisation are challenging. But the good news is that despite these complexities there are ways around them. It’s just a matter of knowledge and EY is committed to helping its clients and other stakeholders,” he added.