U.S. urged to prioritise African market

The Group Head, Corporate and Commercial West, Skye Bank Sierra Leone, Adesola Orisamoluwa, has urged the United States of America to prioritise African market opportunities to outsmart its global competitors.

Orisamoluwa, who spoke with The Guardian in Akure, yesterday, noted that this would not only help America to gain dominance in the global market space but would also put its closest rival, China, at bay.

He referred to a trending video of an American economist, Jeffrey Sachs, who stated that the developed world should begin to focus on the African young 1.4 billion population.

Orisamoluwa said: “For me, the Fortune 500 businesses should make conscious efforts to come to Africa and that seems one sure way of demystifying the Chinese takeover.”

According to a recent report, from only 10 in 2001, China increased its Fortune 500 number to 200 in 2020 while North American companies have reduced.

Orisamoluwa noted that since 2001, there has been a significant change in the geographical distribution of the companies in the global 500 rankings.

“The number of North American-based companies decreased from 215 in 2001 to 143 in 2017 and the contribution of Asian-based companies increased from 116 in 2001 to 197 in 2017.

“Most of this growth is accounted for by the rapid increase in the number of Chinese Global 500 companies, of which there were 109 by 2017, increasing from only 10 in 2001. The share of European-based companies also declined, from 158 to 143, over the same period,” he said.

The financial expert added: “China is leveraging on their huge population, working assiduously to satisfy their local and global markets.

“Africa is a major hub for Chinese aggressive market capturing strategy. Unfortunately, their Europe and North America counterparts have continually jettisoned the African market.”