Adesina, Akufo-Addo, others pitch African opportunities to global investors

• Urge national leaders to de-risk regional market
• Seek collaboration to improve trade, shared infrastructure
• Future of Africa in investment not aid, AfDB President restates

President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, his Ethiopian counterpart, Sahle-Work Zewde, and Zimbabwe’s Emmerson Mnangagwa joined President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, yesterday, in his renewed zeal to position the continent as the next frontier of global investment.

Others on the presidential call included Vice President of Cote d’Ivoire, Tiémoko Meyliet Koné; his Tanzanian and Liberian colleagues, Philip Mpango and Jewel Taylor; and Prime Ministers of Cape Verde and Cote d’Ivoire, Dr. José Ulisses Correia e Silva and Patrick Achi.

The leaders took turns to make a case for relevant investment inflow, and justified why the region should be the destination of global capital at the ongoing African Investment Forum (AIF) Market Days 2022, a joint project of AfDB and seven other partners, hosted in Abidjan, the capital of Cote d’Ivoire.

Adesina, as usual, passionately unfolded potentials of the continent to the global audience, restating that the future of “Africa lies in investment and not aid.” A new Africa, he said, is a continent that will be driven by investment.

The former Nigerian agriculture minister insisted the continent “cannot be ignored” as it is critical to building a sustainable global economy, and urged those who have not started investing in the region to “rethink again”.

He said: “Africa is the place to be. Just think of the following: by 2050, Africa will account for over one quarter of the world’s population. Africa has the largest sources of renewable energy in the world. Africa has 65 per cent of the uncultivated arable land left to feed the world.

“The future of electric cars in the world depends on Africa because it has the largest sources of cobalt in the world, with massive sources of lithium in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ghana, Mali, and Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is the largest free trade zone in the world, connecting economies worth $3.3 trillion.”

Adesina downplayed the poor perception about Africa as an extremely risky market, insisting perception and reality “are different things”.

On the Africa Investment Forum’s Market Days, he said: “In four years, since the forum commenced in 2018, it has helped to mobilise $110 billion in investment interests to Africa.

“At the Africa Investment Forum, we do deals, deals, and deals. And they are transformational deals. The $600 million securitised finance to support the cocoa board of Ghana has helped Ghana to grow its production by one million metric tons, with infrastructure for warehousing and processing.”

“The landmark $24 billion Liquified Natural Gas Project of Mozambique, which was structured and closed at the Africa Investment Forum, is the largest ever foreign direct investment in Africa. It will turn Mozambique into the third largest exporter of natural gas in the world and add $66 billion to its economy.”

During the presidential plenary, Akufo-Addo argued that “smart money is in Africa” for investors who are searching for high returns. He, however, urged governments to create “regulatory frameworks” to de-risk the continent, to improve its ability to attract and retain investments across key sectors.

The Ghanaian leader called on private investors to look beyond challenges and see the enormous potential of the continent projected to control a quarter of the global population by 2050. According to him, Africa presents the brightest opportunities for investors, which no serious investors should overlook.

On her part, Zewde said risks have strong positive correlation with returns on investment, arguing that investments generally “are risks”. She said there is no perfect situation anywhere in the world and called on investors to embrace emerging opportunities in Africa.

Mnangagwa, whose country has been under sanctions from the West in the past 21 years, called on African leaders to think seriously what countries in the continent could do for themselves and with themselves. He said there is so much to gain from collaboration and leveraging internals resources to drive growth.