Feedback from the Davos meetings of the World Economic Forum (WEF) has always been useful. Historically, the discussions with world leaders, both political and corporate, provide insight into what is expected in the year ahead. The post-event mood after the meetings was generally vibrant but 2024 was a departure from the past. Is it because WEF is losing its luster or because world leaders did not want to face the tough questions that were expected at Davos? Geopolitically, it was a disaster, as several world leaders were missing from the January 2024 WEF meetings; France’s Emmanuel Macron was the only leader from the G7 countries. Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Rishi Sunak and many other leaders were conspicuous by their absence. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was present for a special address. The Russians were missing and so were their oligarch parties that are part of the pomp and show during Davos.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="754" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/21-September-2023-Wahi-6-of-6-754x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-61671" style="width:397px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/21-September-2023-Wahi-6-of-6-754x1024.png 754w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/21-September-2023-Wahi-6-of-6-221x300.png 221w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/21-September-2023-Wahi-6-of-6-768x1043.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/21-September-2023-Wahi-6-of-6-1131x1536.png 1131w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/21-September-2023-Wahi-6-of-6-1508x2048.png 1508w" sizes="(max-width: 754px) 100vw, 754px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Dr Rakesh Wahi (Photo by Yeshiel Panchia)</figcaption></figure></div>


Africa has been gaining in prominence at the WEF meetings and delegations from South Africa, Rwanda, Ghana and a few other countries continue to be torchbearers for the continent. Some inter-esting debates on technology, AI and the challenges of the future were thought-provoking this year but to a large part, there was nothing to write home about. In 2018, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, along with several other multilaterals, founded the Africa Investment Forum as an alternative to WEF Davos. The vision was to move away from talk and politics to a platform for action. For African countries, this platform is far more valuable than the money that gets spent in participating in Davos. The outcomes are measurable and are focused on Africa and our leaders need to focus on answers relating to the African continent and not be bystanders to the deafening silence at a global platform.



The unanswered and embarrassing questions before world leaders include, but are not limited to, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and climate change. The issue of Ukraine will remain unsolved as long as the West continues to fuel and fight a proxy war against Russia. Although, the United States’ (U.S.) Repub-lican party has reportedly applied some brakes to the funding of the war, there is relentless hysteria being stirred regarding Russia’s aggression and intent to start similar campaigns along other parts of its border. Finland and Sweden are the most recent additions to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which now has 32 members.



We can only speculate that despite any adjectives that have been used to describe Putin, one thing that he most certainly is not, is a fool who would even, in all his arrogance, think that Russia could take on the collective might of NATO in a conventional war. Looking purely at data that is in the public domain, Russia has 40% of the ground troops, 20% of aircraft and 28% of the naval power of NATO. This is a disincentive for Russia to go to war with any NATO country. Where Russia has a distinct advantage is in nuclear capability and this should not be taken lightly. Putin has made his intention clear; if NATO gets involved or pushes his hand, he has limited choices.



When Ukraine began its quest for membership to NATO, Russia warned them not to do so for reasons that are known to the whole world. None of the superpowers want their cold war enemies setting up bases near their borders. What would the U.S. do if Russia were to set up a base in Mexico? The Cuban missile crisis of 1962 almost brought about a nuclear war when the U.S. found out about the Soviet Union’s plans to establish nuclear weapons in Cuba.



History has taught us many lessons and self-preservation is an adequate motivation for nations to act in self-interest. The only way fighting between neighbors can come to an end is if the two (with the help of affected and interested neighbors) sit down to talk. This can only happen if NATO countries take a step back to stop fueling the war through money and weapons, stop expand- ing NATO and ask Russia to stop any further aggression. By now, Putin would also have understood that continuing this conflict is not sustainable, even for Russia.



The discussion on Ukraine is not complete without acknowl- edging the growing conflicts of interest. Other than in supplying weapons, Western countries, mainly the U.S., have significant economic interests in Ukraine, most of all in securing agricultural capacity for all times to come. Several major multinational corporations owned and controlled by some of the largest U.S. financial institutions are alleged to be the beneficiaries of privatization and concessions in Ukraine. Unfortunately, as the media continues to report on the horrific consequences of war, there is silence on the conflict of economic interest that will continue to catalyze the war.



We are also facing a major crisis in Gaza. It has been six months since the attack carried out by Hamas against Israel on October 7 2023. I do not believe that there is any human being with a soul who will condone the killing and suffering of innocent women and children at the scale that is going on in the war between Israel and Hamas. This time around, the U.S. is supporting Israel and has time and again blocked any move made at the United Nations Security Council calling for a stop to the bloodshed. What is going on in Gaza will have far greater consequences for the world than the war in Ukraine. The world is likely to get more and more polarized and instead of progressing forward and making the world a better place, there is going to be more hate and regression.



In the last two years, these two conflicts have cost the world far more than any other recent crisis. Some Pentagon sources have quoted that the direct cost of the war for Russia in Ukraine, to date, has been more than $210 billion. This does not include the economic loss to the world in the form of price escalation, the slowing down of economic activity and the setting up of duplicate and expensive supply chains. Financial weekly newspaper Barron’s has quoted Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) sources projecting the global cost of lost output in excess of $2.8 trillion. WEF sources quote figures for the destruction in Ukraine to be between $400 billion and $1 trillion. The German online platform Statista has projected that it will conservatively cost about $410 billion to rebuild Ukraine. These are numbers that for the common man mean very little, other than point to an alarming fact that people in Ukraine will stay below poverty levels for a long, long time. Imagine if this money was poured into developing countries to help them with infrastructure, education, healthcare, energy transformation, agriculture, water and food security.



Agriculture and food production in Africa needs to be catalyzed on a war footing. There is a lot of land in Africa that is currently been bought and/or being leased by multinationals with a view to creating clusters to export agricultural products. There needs to be scrutiny by the African Union and African multilaterals on how to manage the needs of African nations. Why export food when there are so many nations in Africa that continue to import food products? We need compelling incentives for Africans and African-owned companies to grow the agricultural base in Africa.



My favorite activity after the end of a long day at work has always been to watch local and international news networks and catch up on current affairs. In the last few months, my interest has largely been in catching up with elections in different parts of the world. With more than two billion people going to the ballot in over 50 countries this year, a lot of interesting discussions are going to take place on the future of many countries and on geopolitics in general.



Talking about elections; the U.S. elections have always been of interest. It took me a long time to somewhat understand the elections system. It was always interesting to watch the primaries, Super Tuesdays and town hall debates: a seemingly well-structured election system to finally select leading candidates for the Republicans and Democrats who then battle in a final contest for a winner-takes-all. This year has been with mixed emotions but mainly disappointment. I was 13 years old when the Watergate scandal broke in 1972.



We used to hear the news on the radio for updates on the case leading to Richard Nixon’s resignation; the only president in U.S. history to resign, although three others have been formally impeached.



These blemishes aside, one has looked up to the leadership in the U.S.; Barack Obama was my most recent favorite. We are not to judge who Americans choose to lead them but for a country with over 340 million people, I most certainly think that there is enough talent to bring in younger, smarter and less-conflicted individuals to lead the most powerful country in the world.



The sitcoms will continue for the rest of 2024 but sadly, the fate of the world in many ways will rest on the decisions made by Americans this year.



I am ending this piece on a sad note; it’s a personal loss. My business partner of over 20 years, Zafar Siddiqi, passed away at the end of February. We take a lot of things in life for granted; life is one of them. We just believe that what happens to others will not happen to us. Death pauses us when it happens close to home. Each of us rely on familiar faces (personally and professionally) when we have moments of triumph or periods of uncertainty. Coming home after his burial, I was left with the sad real- ity that the face I was so accustomed to turn towards, for over two decades, will only smile from a picture in my office. We both have been through some of the biggest challenges setting up our media and education businesses; one thing we mutually agreed on was to never give up. We put our faith, our blood, sweat and tears into these dreams and built them one brick and one day at a time. Today, we have the best teams and people around us, but the loss is of someone who shared my pain each day of this journey. Rest in peace, dear Zafar.

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From WEF To War To Polls And Politics, An Interesting Year For The World

The multimillion-dollar circus called Davos rolled into the Swiss ski-resort yet again, in January, in all its big deal bombast and bean counting glory. This year, African debate was scant: the man who broke the Bank of England foretold of a broken world laden with fear and doom; there was scary talk of cyber terrorism; just another day, another Davos, for the World Economic Forum.



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If you want an example of how the dash of Davos can descend into self-parody, you should have taken a look at the huge banner draped across the posh Belvedere Hotel throughout the World Economic Forum in the mountain ski-resort. 



It was on the main street through Davos where thousands of delegates slip and slide to scores of functions – with at least one or two slipping over every day – along a line of shops taken over by big money corporate sponsors. 



Much more money is being made elsewhere in this ski-resort: the people who live here go away for the week and let out their homes for a king’s ransom; $30,000 for the week is nothing unusual.&nbsp;&nbsp; 



READ MORE |<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/economy/2018/12/31/world-will-improve-where-it-matters-most-in-2019/">World Will Improve Where It Matters Most In 2019</a>



Most people saw an irony in the banner, yet clearly the
people who spent a fortune on putting it up there couldn’t have. 



“Free trade is great,” says the banner on behalf of
Brexit-bound Great Britain. 



“Didn’t someone tell them they were about to leave one of
the greatest free trade zones in the world?” says one passer-by with a cynical
chuckle.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 



The crack summed up some of the irony that swirls around when cohorts of bean counters, highly-paid administrators and bosses gather in an Alpine icebox to solve the problems of the world.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">The bigwigs weren’t there and this year, there was less buzz and fewer queues outside the briefing rooms. </blockquote>



Donald Trump, who made a big splash at Davos last year,
stayed at home trying to figure out his government shutdown. The four ‘Ms’ –
May, Modi, Macron and Mnangagwa weren’t there either; at least two of them tied
up with fighting fires, from Brexit to economic meltdown, in their own
backyards.



&nbsp;Empty hot seats, at
Davos, at a time when the world is crying out for the wisdom of sage leaders. 



Instead, it was left to business leaders, like the
Australian-born CEO of billion-dollar turnover infrastructure giant Arup, Greg
Hodkinson, to cut to the chase.



“We need clear political leadership in this fractured world… otherwise we are going to get easy political leadership preying on people’s fears,” says Hodkinson at one of the first panels of WEF 2019, on infrastructure.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2017/03/01/richest-powerful-go-davos/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Why The Richest And Most Powerful Go To Davos (opens in a new tab)">Why The Richest And Most Powerful Go To Davos</a>



Hodkinson, who has worked in infrastructure for 40 years,
also said investment in infrastructure could no longer ignore the future, or
the deteriorating environment.



&nbsp;“Carbon should be
priced into infrastructure projects and that will act as an economic trigger
for private money to come in because not only will it mean more revenue, it
will help us put more money into saving the environment,” says Hodkinson.



According to the WEF Global Risks Report for 2018, some of
the top risks by impact are posed by the elements: floods and storms; water
crisis, plus earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos and electric storms. 



“By 2040, the investment gap in global infrastructure is
forecast to reach $18 trillion against a projected requirement of $97 trillion.
Against this backdrop, we strongly recommend that businesses develop a climate
resilience adaptation strategy and act on it now,” warns Alison Martin, Group
Chief Risk Officer, Zurich Insurance Group, in the report.



The money is there, according to Hodkinson, but needs to be
channeled with foresight.



“Even if someone is building a car parking garage, I ask
what else can they do with it because they won’t need it one day,” says
Hodkinson.



“The money is there. Investors sank six trillion dollars
into United States junk bonds last year; if investors are prepared to roll the
dice on junk bonds, what about infrastructure investment?”



Investors, on this day at Davos, heard that 65% of world infrastructure projects are unbankable without government guarantees. Private money is needed to fill the gaping infrastructure gap, yet negotiations between investor and government officials can prove difficult.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/economy/2019/01/09/world-bank-sees-global-growth-slowing-in-2019/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="World Bank Sees Global Growth Slowing In 2019 (opens in a new tab)">World Bank Sees Global Growth Slowing In 2019</a>



Just ask Heng Swee Keat, the Cambridge-educated finance
minister of Singapore, the former Parliamentary Private Secretary to the father
of infrastructure on the industrious little island who harnessed private money
for public good – the legendary late premier Lee Kuan Yew. 



The finance minister warned relationships between public and
private sectors could be “lumpy”. 



“I remember a man coming to me and saying he was never going
to invest in infrastructure in your country again, I asked him ‘why’ and he
said, because the last time we invested and made money the government came back
to us and asked ‘why are you making so much money’,’’ chuckled Swee Keat.







Another major issue in Davos was Artificial Intelligence.
This promises not only the development of new technology to take the backbreak
and tedium out of life, but also to replace workers with robots. Exciting times
for many, yet maybe worrying times for us all if one of the many briefings was
anything to go by – one man’s bank account can be another radical’s cash cow.
Experts painted a bleak picture of threats and radicalism lurking on the dark
web.



&nbsp;“I wouldn’t put my credit card into a machine today. This is happening right now,” exclaimed retired US Marine Corps’ four-star general, John Allen, a former commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. I had asked him about how far away we were from cyber-terrorism cleaning out bank accounts.



“A cyber terrorist can open a bank account on a Monday,
start cleaning people’s accounts out on a Tuesday and start supplying money to
their cause on a Wednesday. I saw a case of a bank in Bangladesh that was
cleaned out of $80 million in one day. We have to develop strong systems to
defend our financial systems.”



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2017/09/27/big-four-accounting-firm-deloitte-confirms-cyber-attack/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Big Four Accounting Firm Deloitte Confirms Cyber Attack (opens in a new tab)">Big Four Accounting Firm Deloitte Confirms Cyber Attack</a>



Cyber- terrorists are becoming ever more clever and
ubiquitous, warns Karin von Hippel, a former senior advisor to the US
Department of State, who worked on security for the United Nations and European
Union in Somalia and Kosovo. The Islamic Isis movement, in Syria, attracted
40,000 volunteers from 120 countries and many used internet to further their
cause, she says.



“They are all out there in the cloud and the dark web doing
their work. They move so fast that it is very hard to keep up with,” says Von
Hippel.



“If we spent half as much money on easing the causes of this
terrorism, as we do fighting it, we would not drive so many youths into the
arms of the radicals,” says Allen.



Don’t panic, too much, cautions Von Hippel.



“Despite all of this, you’ve still got a bigger chance of
dying in the bathtub than you do in a terrorist attack,” she quips to ease the
tension at the end of a worrying, yet eye-opening, session.



If you listened to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa
at Davos, on a cold Wednesday night, you would have bathed with abandon and
slept soundly in the snow afterwards. 



“We are casting our nets here and finding big fish,” says Ramaphosa,
the master of the metaphor, at the press briefing earlier in the day.



In Davos, Ramaphosa would have faced awkward questions from
investors over why his government is propping up loss-making state enterprises,
taking time to cut back government expenditure and the civil service, plus the
thorny issue of expropriation of land without compensation.



That night, at the customary presidential dinner, in Davos,
Ramaphosa, with microphone in hand, was as optimistic as a leader should be in
an election year.



“When we see people here, they ask us how we manage to get business, government and unions working together for the economy of our country,” says Ramaphosa.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“They say tell us what magic you have. What I tell them is that there is a renewal and determination to make South Africa work. ” </blockquote>



The most chilling view of the future was yet to come. It
came from the lips of grey-haired global investor George Soros, the man who
broke the Bank of England, who invited us to the plush Seehof Hotel, one icy
Thursday night, for an icier speech. 



The 88-year-old hedge fund tycoon, worth $8.3 billion
according to FORBES, reportedly made $1 billion in one day, in Britain’s
sterling crisis of 1992, by shorting the British pound.



&nbsp; “I want to use my
time tonight to warn the world about an unprecedented danger that’s threatening
the very survival of open societies,” were the dramatic opening words. 



Soros delivered a potted history of his early life in the shadow of oppression. When he was 13, in 1944, the Nazis invaded Hungary and deported Jews to concentration camps. His father, a lawyer, understood the system and arranged false papers and hiding places for the family. 



When the Soviets moved into post-war Bucharest, Soros took refuge in England where he put himself through the London School of Economics by working as a waiter and railway porter. He became a leading hedge fund manager by analysing the weaknesses of prevailing theories guiding investors.



&nbsp;“Running a hedge fund
was very stressful. When I had made more money than I needed for myself or my
family, I underwent a kind of midlife crisis. Why should I kill myself to make
more money?” he says.



Then, Soros began his philanthropic work, in 1979, by
supporting scholarships for black students at Cape Town University. To this day,
his Open Society Foundations aims to protect the human rights and freedom he
fears are under attack.



“An alliance is emerging between authoritarian states and
the large data-rich IT monopolies that bring together nascent systems of
corporate surveillance with an already developing system of state-sponsored
surveillance. This may well result in a web of totalitarian control the likes
of which not even George Orwell could have imagined. Tonight, I want to call
attention to the mortal danger facing open societies from the instruments of
control that machine-learning and artificial intelligence can put in the hands
of repressive regimes,” says Soros.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="700" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1087968182-1024x700.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-39625" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1087968182-1024x700.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1087968182-300x205.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1087968182-600x410.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1087968182-768x525.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1087968182.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>George Soros, billionaire and founder of Soros Fund Management LLC, speaks at an event on day three of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. World leaders, influential executives, bankers and policy makers attend the 49th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos from Jan. 22 &#8211; 25. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



“China isn’t the only authoritarian regime in the world, but
it’s undoubtedly the wealthiest, strongest and most developed in machine
learning and Artificial Intelligence. This makes Xi Jinping the most dangerous
opponent of those who believe in the concept of open society. But Xi isn’t
alone. Authoritarian regimes are proliferating all over the world and if they
succeed, they will become totalitarian.”



Soros also criticized US foreign policy on China. “My present view is that instead of waging a trade war with practically the whole world, the US should focus on China. Instead of letting ZTE and Huawei off lightly, it needs to crack down on them. 



If these companies came to dominate the 5G market, they would present an unacceptable security risk for the rest of the world. Regrettably, President Trump seems to be following a different course: make concessions to China and declare victory while renewing his attacks on US allies. This is liable to undermine the US policy objective of curbing China’s abuses and excesses.”



The final chilling words for anyone who loves freedom: “My
key point is that the combination of repressive regimes with IT monopolies
endows those regimes with a built-in advantage over open societies. The
instruments of control are useful tools in the hands of authoritarian regimes,
but they pose a mortal threat to open societies.”



Journalists at least closed a heavy night with a lighter
moment. They asked Soros whose side Facebook and Google were on.



“I think Facebook and the others are on the side of their
own profits,” says Soros to a gale of laughter.



All the time we were listening to these predictions of AI surveillance doom at Davos, in a warm lounge at the Seehof Hotel, we were surrounded by armed police, airport security, surveillance cameras and cell phones that tell the world where you are, who you are and what you are doing, or saying, maybe doomsday is already here.

Day Three Of World Economic Forum 2019

Chilling Words From The Man Who Broke The Bank Of England

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged on Wednesday that his government would not interfere with the independence of the Reserve Bank, despite a proposal by the ruling party to broaden its focus to boost employment and economic growth.



“We do not seek to interfere with its independence,” Ramaphosa told a news conference at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.



The central bank’s mandate now focuses on price stability, but the African National Congress said in its 2019 election manifesto that monetary policy should also “take into account other objectives, such as employment creation and economic growth”.

South Africa’s President Ramaphosa Assures Central Bank Independence

Many of the thousands of delegates at Davos, Switzerland, wonder how long this gathering of the world’s elite can go on in its present form, in what must be one of the world’s strangest locations for an economic conference. It must have looked a great venue, albeit from left field, when it was planned here back in 1971, but then again gas guzzling cars and Richard Nixon also seemed a good idea at the time. The face of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos is changing. In the last decade, the number of delegates from countries like Germany and Britain has fallen, while those from China have increased by 283% and Russia by 57%.
One of the big hitters at this year’s Davos was Narendra Modi, who became the first Indian prime minister to attend in 20 years. He made a stentorian speech defending globalization, criticizing protectionism and urging swift action over climate change. Surely, it is only a matter of time before WEF will be hosted by emerging markets like India, Russia and China.
Davos, a small village in the Alps of eastern Switzerland, is perfect for skiing and even better for taking photographs for a Christmas card – the snow-topped forests cascading down the steep mountainsides are a wonder to behold; the crisp air is as refreshing as a cool drink on a hot day. It is a place where you can clear your head, in seconds, with a lung full of Alpine air.
Yet, as the years wear on, it looks ill-suited for the gathering of the clans of globalization. Thousands of delegates and heads of state from 70 countries, plus more billionaires and business owners than you can poke a stick at, packed out the village this year. Throughout the day, you could see European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and his cohorts picking through the snow, or highly-paid executives slipping on the ice, or Bill Gates sliding through the sludge as the long, cold Alpine night gripped the streets.
Most of the people who live in Davos threw their hands up years ago in the face of the annual invasion by the suited elite. They rent out their homes and flee to better climes. It is a good job that they do because in WEF week Davos is bursting at the seams. This year the traffic jammed around the conference; security was as high as the mountains, with soldiers and police everywhere; there were more snipers on the roof than there were golf carts on the ground transporting delegates over the packed snow the like of which many people in Davos said they hadn’t seen for years. The heavy snow was a reminder that extreme weather and natural disasters were the top concern among delegates this year, according to a WEF survey, followed by cyberattacks and data theft.
One of the reasons for the tight security, in this crowded village, was the visit of the controversial leader of the free world Donald Trump. It was a surprise visit to say the least; for years Trump derided the intellectual globalists of WEF. Now he wanted to come and sell his “America First” policy as the first US president to set foot in Davos since Bill Clinton in 2000. Along with an 827-strong US delegation – out of 3,000 delegates – he came to laud his tax cuts and reforms that delivered growth, forecast at 2.7%, this year, a fillip for the world economy after a decade of torpid growth.
It is a bright spot, on a brighter horizon, unveiled by the great and the good at Davos. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts global growth of 3.9% this year and next; 0.2% higher than expected thanks to US tax cuts and a sterling performance from emerging economies like Russia and Brazil. Better, but no time for complacency says IMF head Christine Lagarde, who wants to push growth harder by cracking down on tax evasion and corruption.
“When the sun is shining it is time to fix the roof,” says Lagarde. “Or when the snow stops it is time to clear the road. That is how it seems to work in Davos.”
Despite this glimmer of hope you get the feeling optimism is running out at WEF. For a start, you could argue that Trump’s strident one-nation populism – that appears to have spread to a score of other countries – is one reason why the liberal WEF ethos of working together to ease investment and fix the world is struggling to stay afloat.
“It is America First meets We are the World,” quipped the Wall Street Journal on the eve of the visit.
<div id="attachment_35580" style="width: 391px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35580" class=" wp-image-35580" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Donald-Trump-WEF-e1520928622889-300x194.jpg" alt="" width="381" height="246" />US President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (Photo by Getty Images)</div>
Before Trump set foot in Davos, he ruffled feathers with disparaging remarks about Africa. Many of the African delegates told me they were going to boycott his speech in protest.
“There has never been a better time to hire, to build, to invest and to grow in the United States,” says Trump in his speech that this time took a swipe at the press instead of Africa.
“It wasn’t until I became a politician, that I realized how nasty, how mean, how vicious and how fake the press can be.”
If you want to get an idea of how far Africa is under the US radar right now, you should have been at the press briefing held by the urbane US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. I asked about the future of Power Africa under the Trump administration; a fair question given the America First policy and the power plan’s origins. It is a legacy of Barack Obama and aims to blend US aid with private investment to create 30,000MW of electricity, enough to power an industrialized nation like South Africa. The fast-talking US lobby correspondents whipped around to look at me as if I had asked the source of the Zambezi.
“It is still going. We have created about 400MW in Ghana, which it not even 1%. But we are going to visit in the second quarter,” says the Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross without much interest.
I was encouraged by Nigerian multi-millionaire Tony Elumelu who later assured me African investors would see Power Africa through.
Contrast that with the fire and enthusiasm of one of Africa’s future leaders who saw WEF as a stage to launch his campaign to clean up his country and bring back investors. Cyril Ramaphosa, the man set to be the next president of South Africa if the African National Congress wins the 2019 elections, is already behaving with that statesmanlike assurance of power. In many ways he was Africa’s man of the moment at Davos.
It was not always so. For more than a quarter of a century the lawyer-activist, who founded the biggest union in Africa, the National Union of Mineworkers, was the nearly man of South African politics. He nearly became deputy to Nelson Mandela in 1994 and went off to business instead. Now he is on the cusp of real political power and appears to respect this.
With a ready, beaming smile that could melt the Davos snow, Ramaphosa has a deft common touch. On the cold night we sat for dinner in Davos, Ramaphosa staged a charm offensive for the gathering of millionaires and a number of South Africa’s most powerful CEOs. These are among the people he needs to win over if the country’s economy is to slip back into gear. The sad story of the last year has been downgrades to junk status by the ratings agencies and minuscule growth from the once cooking, commodity-rich South African economy.
Avuncular and cracking jokes, the future president changed seats over and over again until he had spoken to everyone on the long table. It was more like a South African wedding than a formal dinner at which he hammered home his anti-corruption message.
“There are no holy cows. Anyone who is caught doing wrong things will end up behind the bars of a jail,” says Ramaphosa.
Most of the business types agreed that this was what they wanted to hear after years of economic struggle and a host of corruption scandals. Ramaphosa has been busy since his ascent, prompting corruption investigations and the freezing of assets. It was enough to send the rand soaring above 12 to the dollar, which warmed many South African delegates in the snow.
Ramaphosa helped the rand further by telling the world that the nuclear power deal – that the present incumbent is pushing – is off the table for now because it is too expensive. He also promised to sort out the disputed Mining Charter – the document that guides efforts to increase black ownership of the mines; uncertainty and court challenges over rushed amendments to the document have choked investment.
<div id="attachment_35581" style="width: 392px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35581" class=" wp-image-35581" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Cyril-Ramaphosa-WEF-e1520928824721-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="382" height="254" />South Africa&#8217;s President Cyril Ramaphosa at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland (Photo by Getty Images)</div>
In all, according to Ramaphosa and finance minister Malusi Gigaba, their utterances at Davos had unlocked hundreds of millions of dollars from investors in South Africa who were holding back because of concern about corruption and political uncertainty. Ramaphosa believes the ratings agencies are likely to give South Africa a better score when he meets with them.
“We are going home happy with bags full of millions of dollars of promises from investors,” says Ramaphosa with a smile before he flew home.
Most around the dinner table in Davos agreed that Ramaphosa’s words were fine as a starter, but wanted to see the main course.
Elsewhere in Africa, Nigerian entrepreneur and former FORBES AFRICA cover Tonye Cole, the co-founder of the Sahara Group, was as optimistic as ever.
“Africa will play a role. The world has to look at Africa as the last place to make a difference and they will do that,” says Cole.
Rwanda was in fine fettle, according to its finance minister Claver Gatete in Davos, with 8% growth expected this year on the back of increasing exports – a rate that most countries in the world would do anything for right now.
“We are trying to remain an open and attractive economy,” says Gatete.
Nigeria, after years of suffering under falling oil prices and the decline of the naira, is looking up at long last. Growth is expected to be 1.4% this year, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. Also expected is a 40% increase in exports, and better revenues from oil.
“It is a bullish period for us in terms of attracting business and we are excited,” says Osinbajo.
The words of hope that said it all for Africa on one cold Swiss afternoon came from South Africa’s Reserve Bank Governor, the tall and enthusiastic Lesetja Kganyago.
“This time last year I was pleading with investors to keep confidence in South Africa and keep their money in the country. This year I do not have enough time in the day to meet people who want to put their money into the country,” says a smiling Kganyago.
Bring on the main course – we’re hungry.

Africa Left In The Cold

For years, I’ve been a silent observer of the World Economic Forum (WEF), reading about it on the internet, editing reams of copy on it or watching it on TV. But one question has always remained in my mind. What drives thousands of people each year to a small alpine town in Switzerland to live out Professor Klaus Schwab’s dream, who founded the forum in 1971?
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After traveling almost 13,000 kilometers from the tip of Africa to Davos, a semblance of an answer began to emerge.
The answer was not to be found in the sub-zero temperatures that left the entire body numb with cold nor in Responsive and Responsible Leadership, the theme driving the WEF Annual Meeting 2017. Instead it was to be found in the Congress Centre, or on the streets and hotels of Davos-Klosters.
It was to be found among the people – the 3,000 delegates that gathered for the event and the thousands of support staff.
The draw card – the opportunity to mingle and be seen with the most influential and powerful people in the world. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, crossed my path several times at Davos. Mauritius President Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, after sharing her plans for attracting investors to her country on a cold winter’s night, agreed to a photo with me.
Singer and songwriter Shakira shared her passion for early child development advising us that “today’s babies will drive tomorrow’s business. Their capacity to contribute will shape tomorrow’s societies, will solve tomorrow’s problems”.
Anne-Sophie Mutter, one of the world’s most famous violinists, entertained the crowds. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Finance Minister of Nigeria and Board Chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, discussed plans to immunize up to 300 million more children all over the world by 2020.
The allure of Davos is that it gives delegates a platform to discuss the most pressing issues of our time, such as the refugee crisis, climate change and can-women-have-it-all?
It offers an arena to do business deals with the richest, to form new contacts and exchange business cards. It provides purveyors a glimpse into where the world stands, shifts in geopolitics and the ironies and contradictions of the world. It allows those present to see who controls the vast majority of wealth and intellectual capital and how this has changed.
WEF 2017 was a world in which the largest bankers, infamous for the financial crisis, such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, could be heard offering their views on Trump making America and stock markets great again, while Ugandan-born Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director at Oxfam, was decrying that eight men own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity, according to a new report published by the agency.
It was an arena that brought into stark contrast the plight of Africa, and the developed world when simultaneously it hosted a panel discussion with CNBC Africa on Powering Africa, while meters away, some of the leading minds in technology were debating what role artificial intelligence should play in our futures; and that the 48 countries that make up sub-Saharan Africa generate almost the same amount of electricity as Spain.
Davos 2017 was a gathering where UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May declared that Britain’s decision to leave the European Union was not a rejection of its friends in Europe but simply a vote to restore its “parliamentary democracy and national self-determination. A vote to take control and make decisions for ourselves”. Juxtapose this with Xi Jinping’s attendance. Jinping, the first Chinese president to attend WEF, led the country’s largest-ever delegation to the ski-resort town to make a statement that China wants to assume a global leadership role as the world struggles with isolationism, populism and polarization. In a speech at the event, he stated: “It is true that economic globalization has created new problems, but this is no justification to write economic globalization off completely. Rather, we should adapt to and guide economic globalization, cushion its negative impact, and deliver its benefits to all countries and all nations.”
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– Vanek is news editor of CNBC Africa and CNBCAfrica.com; she lives and breathes business and financial news, and is now slowly developing a passion for artificial intelligence.

Why The Richest And Most Powerful Go To Davos

The sharpest minds in world business are in Africa to take stock of the last quarter of a century and help unravel the great knot of economic problems of the continent. The future of our grandchildren depends upon it.
At the heart of the issue is how the continent is going to get Africa’s fast growing working population to work. The World Economic Forum estimates that working population will double to one billion strong – that’s more than three times the population of the United States – by 2040.
Many of these young workers will be young, restless and savvy; they will be plugged into social media and will know what they are missing out on. Few in Africa will need a reminder that the devil makes work for idle hands; those who remember the death and violence of the Arab Spring in North Africa or the xenophobia in South Africa.
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The only way to mop up this growing lake of unemployment is through economic growth. Regional growth in Africa has remained steady at around 5% – at a time when most of the world has struggled with poor growth.
But double-digit growth is needed now to help draw the young, bright and talented into the workforce. Given Africa’s fight for foreign investment, with the rest of the world’s emerging economies, this growth rate, is likely to prove a mountain to climb.
“Even the world’s fastest growing economies are struggling to grow at 7.5%, so the chances of double digit growth for Africa are almost zero. I think the continent is more likely to be looking at 4.5% to 5%,” says George Glynos, an economist with ETM Analytics in Johannesburg.
For growth to happen, infrastructure is needed in Africa like a drink in the desert. Broadband, rails, roads and ports; a list that trips off the tongue, but the reality is more complicated.
In May 2013, all of us in Cape Town for WEF Africa heard how the World Bank estimated Africa needs $93 billion a year worth of infrastructure. Even at the time, most people in Cape Town thought this figure was a drop in the ocean and they were probably right.
Raising that kind of money may prove difficult with a shallow investment pool and institutions short of money. The Development Bank of Southern Africa admitted in Cape Town that it could only hope to raise 5% of the infrastructure bill, even though it predicted the BRICS nations would invest $50-75 billion over the next decade.
Furthermore, African states have to compete with nations around the world, who are also suffering from crumbling infrastructure, for investors. The exception may be the Chinese who are prepared to pour money into African infrastructure in return for resources and business.
The three magic letters to bring in the necessary billions, according to the experts, are PPP. In English, that is Public-Private Partnership, marrying investor’s money with state coffers to build the infrastructure that economies need. It sounds easier than it is. Many have the romantic idea that governments can sit down with private business, shake hands and agree. Not so. Governments and private business tend to work at different speeds. Governments in Africa can take many months to pay bills and their approach to business can differ.
“Private enterprise always needs to make sure the financing is sound before going into a project with government. If you look at the attempt in South Africa to boost the electricity grid by using PPPs it has proved difficult because the pricing is low. With all the will in the world, nothing will happen until you get the pricing right,” says Glynos.
Most agree that the governments of Africa have to work harder.
First, transparency in processes enables swifter decisions and execution; second, shared value and clear understanding of incentives across the value chain drives buy-in; and third, building a culture of trust between stakeholders is paramount, enabling bottle-necks to be addressed as they arise,” says Euvin Naidoo, a South African banker and strategist who is a WEF Global Young Leader.
Power, or the lack of it, is likely to be one of the big issues at WEF. South Africa, the largest power generator, has been struggling through the winter because of maintenance and breakdowns.
Linda Olagunju, the CEO of DLO Energy Resources who will be a speaker at WEF, believes it is time to integrate Africa’s power business by region.
“It is time for us to stop thinking about what each country is doing individually and start thinking of the progress of investment in power as a region,” she says.
Olagunju believes this could be helped by a legal framework for each region to ease cross-border power transactions and set up uniform bidding processes to help attract private money. She also believes renewable energy should be encouraged.
One of the big issues to be discussed at WEF Africa, is the pledge that the continent’s regions would agree to integrate infrastructure by region. That is, one country has the best airport; while its neighbors have good ports and roads so, between them, they can move trade through. This makes sense but it could be fraught with conflict as each country, naturally, wishes to have the best of everything. At WEF Africa 2013, leaders agreed to negotiate; this year’s gathering will hear back from them, I am sure many people can’t wait.

The Devil  In The Detail

If Johannesburg is South Africa’s business heart, Cape Town, The Mother City, is its creative soul. The city, which is currently World Design Capital, is home to the country’s creative industries – film, animation, fashion, food and advertising. Its inhabitants are driving a creative prerogative from Africa with a global appeal.
Hanli Prinsloo and Hanneli Rupert are two Cape Townians who are making their voices heard on the world stage. In 2014, they were both named Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
FORBES WOMAN AFRICA brought Prinsloo and Rupert together for a joint photoshoot, a month before the WEF’s Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China.
Rupert and Prinsloo are young, intelligent and excited about the difference that their businesses can make in sustaining an Africa of beauty and prosperity. Together, they embody the creative spirit of Cape Town and the fearlessness of the women of Africa.
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<h2>Hanli Prinsloo</h2>
<h5>The Freediving Mermaid</h5>
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When Hanli Prinsloo was a little girl, she dreamt about being a mermaid. Her oceans were the dams surrounding her parents’ horse farm on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa. Her fishtail was her two feet – filthy from running around barefoot with her sister, Marieke.
“I was surrounded by animals, trees, fields and rivers, and we grew up to love nature. I was crazy, wild as a child – a complete tomboy. Our parents raised us to follow our dreams and we did,” says the 36-year-old Prinsloo.
These days, she lives in a small fishing village less than an hour outside of Cape Town. The ocean is at her disposal and her fishtail is a large state-of-the-art monofin. Apart from that, not much has changed. Prinsloo still dreams big.
The Blue Planet
The I Am Water Trust is an ocean conservation organization founded by Prinsloo in 2010, whose purpose is to educate and foster love for the ocean and all life forms that call it home. Few people will love something they don’t know and Prinsloo is on a drive to increase awareness about water by facilitating experiences out in the big blue. Much of the education is directed at previously-disadvantaged individuals who may not have access to the ocean’s beauty.
Prinsloo was inspired to create I Am Water after close to a decade spent in water as a competitive freediver and coach. For the uninitiated, freediving is a niche underwater diving practice which relies on the diver holding his or her breath until resurfacing. Prinsloo was first introduced to the sport when she was 20.
“When you go underwater you don’t talk, you look inwards and you just experience the ocean and the animal and plant life around you. For your mind, being underwater is a state of meditation or a state of no mind…maybe,” she says.
“When we go underwater together, we find a connection to each other. I first found that connection to myself and to others when I went underwater. It is the most quiet and peaceful experience.”
Prinsloo began competing and broke her first South Africa freediving record in 2003. A series of accolades followed and Prinsloo is now firmly placed in the freediving hall of fame. She teaches freediving and has coached various sportspeople – from surfers to rugby players – in the mental strength needed to hold your breath under water for close to six minutes.
“The more time I spent in the ocean, the more I wanted to protect it and share it with others. The first thing that unites us all is being in water,” says Prinsloo. The I Am Water Trust was founded with the help of the Ewing Trust Company.
Prinsloo’s other incarnations include documentary-maker and actress. At 19, she relocated to Gothenburg, Sweden, with little financial means, no language proficiency and zero friend or family contacts there.
“My family had traveled to Europe and I had loved the Scandinavian countries because the society is one that supports and celebrates art and creativity. Studies were free so I decided why not?”
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<h5>Filming Africa For Sweden</h5>
“Looking back, I don’t know how my 19-year-old self did it. I learnt Swedish from scratch and supported myself entirely. I couldn’t do that again!” she says. Prinsloo studied towards a performing arts degree and project management and following a short stint as an actress, opened a small agency in Stockholm which specialized in making documentaries.
Prinsloo traveled through Africa putting together short documentaries and reports for Swedish television channels.
“There is so much news of despair coming out from Africa. I didn’t want to tell those stories. I wanted to tell stories of hope. I met people who had witnessed genocide and who loved life so much, that was the Africa I wanted to show to Europe.”
Her final long form documentary project was White as Blood – a story of a woman’s journey home to South Africa. A prophetic topic as Prinsloo soon found herself home for good.
<h2>Hanneli Rupert</h2>
<h5>The Art Aficionado</h5>
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Hanneli Rupert is on a mission to showcase African opulence. Born in South Africa in 1984 but a citizen of the world, Rupert is looking beyond West-led definitions of high-end personal luxury and is creating bespoke items such as handbags and accessories while retaining the entire manufacturing value chain on the continent.
Rupert trained as a painter at the Wimbledon School of Art. Her first art exhibition, called Flesh Mandala’s, focused on the transient qualities of the human skin as depicted by anonymous human bodies.
“I looked at applying some of the more linear sides of my art work to fashion. I found I was designing things for myself – things like bags and necklaces – and people would ask me where they came from.”
Rupert was using organic elements in her designs, an application of a deep-seated fascination with the mystical and the anthropological dimension of Africa’s history. Elements such as raw hides, shells and animal bones were all curated with the purpose of evoking the clandestine romance of a pre-colonial unexplored Africa.
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<h5>Athens To Africa</h5>
“At the time I was living in Athens and I wanted to come back to South Africa. I picked up on a demand for high-end goods from the continent – not just from overseas but from African customers as well. What I didn’t like was that luxury products were being designed and manufactured in established markets using our natural resources,” says Rupert.
“I wanted to do something to add to the value chain here at home.”
Back home in Cape Town in 2008, Rupert founded a luxury handbag line Okapi named after the ancient unicorn-like beast in African folklore.
“I wanted to use game skins on the bags. Game skins are not commonly used in fashion because the hide is imperfect; sometimes you can see scars from where the animal has been in a fight. I love that though, it has character and meaning.”
Rupert then began working with craft groups in and around the Western Cape to create charm add-ons for the handbags. There are detachable chains made from semi-precious African stones and agate, which can also double up as necklaces, as well as charms made from ostrich feathers and bones. The bags themselves are classic in line and the colors – a lot of tan, a lot of muted greens and reds – timeless. Rupert is decidedly not about fads but rather about lasting statement pieces.
“What’s really important to me is authenticity. The origin of the design needs to have meaning and it needs to be backed in history. This carries through to the sourcing of raw materials and the manufacture of the product.
“There is a symbolism in accessorizing, which transcends cultures and historical periods and that is really appealing to me. All humans accessorize to communicate a status. But adornments have become disposable these days and there are few jewelry items which still have meaning. I want the accessories I design and which I wear, to have meaning,”
she says.
The theory behind Okapi is right on the pulse of the current zeitgeist celebrating a mindfully-led curatorship of one’s material possessions. The springbok horn has become an emblem of sorts for the brand.
Rupert wears a black lacquered version swinging low off a chunky gold chain. She explains that Springbok horns were considered lucky in many ancient African cultures and thought to bring prosperity to those who wore them, hence why they can often be found hanging off an Okapi handbag.
Intelligent Fashion
The design ethos carries right through to Rupert’s personal style choices. She is very much about classic and simple but there is a vein of exoticism that runs through her edited preppy wardrobe.
“I love cross-referencing different design and style elements in the way I dress. There’s an intellectual approach to fashion which really excites me.”
Okapi handbags were initially sold online and in a number of stores in London and South Africa. Two years later, in 2010, the desire to create a platform to sell more African-sourced goods prompted Rupert to open her flagship store – Merchants on Long. True to type, the building itself is steeped in history having presided over more than a century of change in Cape Town’s city center.
The store has thrived and Rupert continues to search for ways to incorporate more African designs and more local production into her growing business.

After-touchup

Hanli & Hanneli

Almost two decades since the ground-breaking Beijing Women’s Conference, no country in the world can claim gender equality. As the United Nations Under Secretary-General Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka notes, giving women equal opportunity and removing economic structural barriers, will spur inclusive growth. This view is echoed by prominent economists, such as the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Mthuli Ncube and AGH Capital’s Charles Okeahalam, who say studies show that providing economic opportunity to the other half will without doubt lift growth.
“As with most issues of social transformation, reducing gender inequality is a process, not an event. The key issue is for society to distribute inputs and resources in a way that allows for a full set of economic and social opportunities to be more gender neutral. In Africa, this would lead, as it has done in a number of more industrially advanced societies, to an increase in the opportunity cost of maternity,” says Okeahalam. Yet women remain largely marginalized. According to the WEF’s 2013 Global Gender Gap Report, there are no African countries in the top 10 economies that have closed their gender gaps in the main categories of education, health, economy and politics. Lesotho and South Africa are the best placed, at number 16 and 17 respectively. Overall, the region closed 66% of its gender gap last year, though in education, the continent holds last place.
The 2014 report will be released at this year’s WEF, to be held in Abuja, Nigeria, from May 7 to 9. Women’s issues will be addressed in various other forums around the gathering, says Huguette Umutoni, WEF Africa Team Co-ordinator.
“We are looking to have women’s issues as a common thread for many of our sessions be it around jobs, entrepreneurship, agriculture, peace and security,’’ says Umutoni.
Femmes Africa Solidarité’s Bineta Diop, recently appointed the Africa Union Commission’s special envoy for Women, Peace and Security, will be one of the co-chairs of the Abuja summit. There will also be two other sessions focusing on female leaders.The forum’s efforts are part of a broader struggle to increase women’s participation in the continent’s development. AfDB’s 2014-2018 gender strategy is closely linked to its 10-year strategy, which promotes inclusive growth.
“Investing in women and girls is smart economics and impacts everyone positively,’’ says Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, the AfDB’s special envoy on gender.
The statistics certainly make for some sad reading. A fifth of Africa’s women have bank accounts and the United Nations Development Program says the continent has suffered a 60% loss in development because of gender inequality.
African women and girls are among the world’s poorest, have the highest illiteracy rates, earn amongst the lowest wages and even in agriculture, where women dominate, productivity is 30% lower than men because of lack of access to inputs, according to the AfDB. Klaus Schwab, the Executive Chairman of the WEF, says it is everybody’s responsibility – governments, civil society, educators and media – to provide policy frameworks and the environment to empower women.
“There is not one path to parity, but many. Cash transfer programs, equal access to credit and financial services, parental leave, affordable childcare facilities, innovative hiring processes, redesigned career paths and meaningful mentoring programs are but a few of the types of changes that  must be made,’ says Schwab in the 2013 Global Gender Gap Report.
African governments have also been making strides. In March, South Africa’s parliament passed a gender bill that criminalizes discrimination against women and seeks to improve their access to education, training and skills development. But across the continent, the absence of statistics and lack of gender mainstream planning means more remains to be done.

Invest In Us, It’s Smart’

A new generation of African entrepreneurs and businesses is emerging. They are challenging the old way of doing business and driving cross-border growth.
Kenya’s ICT companies are investing in Rwanda and are now looking to enter Nigeria, while United Bank for Africa and other Nigerian banks are rapidly expanding into Africa. In 2009, South Africa invested $1.6 billion (FDI outflows) into other African countries. MTN, a South African mobile giant, operates in 21 African countries; and Glo, a Nigerian mobile operator, operates in the Republic of Benin, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
Africa’s statistics speak of tremendous potential: the continent is the size of China, Mexico, Europe, India, the States and Japan combined. The population will soon surpass China, with a middle class as big as India’s. Africa has enjoyed more than a decade of sustained GDP growth, which has often outstripped many other parts of the world.
There is frustration in that Africans are not reaping the rewards of the current global investor confidence. The mass export of commodities doesn’t see wealth trickle down.
Home-grown investments, focused on value-adding industries, are the key to changing this dynamic.
Africans still seem to choose products and investments from outside the continent. They prefer to export outside Africa rather than to trade, manufacture and add value within. Many African countries continue to trade raw materials but they don’t have the capability to refine or process, so they import the finished products from outside of Africa.
We need to understand what is preventing Africa from being home to value-adding and value-creating businesses. Why, for example, is Africa’s agricultural richness not generating an integrated growing and processing industry as it has done in Brazil?
Africa requires an environment that facilitates investment and greater market integration. The current weaknesses—corruption, high start-up costs, poor infrastructure—are well-known. But our study will also shed light on the legal, social and cultural differences within Africa that restrict cross-border investments.
There need to be integrated regional production chains within Africa, where Africa’s raw materials are processed into finished goods to be traded. Regional trading blocs— including the Tripartite Free Trade Area, which encompasses the East African Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the Southern African Development Community—would thus thrive, paving the way for a Continental Free Trade Area, that would produce and trade high value-added goods internally.
Greater market integration in Africa will lead to a significant reduction in the cost of doing business and alleviate some of the problems associated with securing work permits and labor mobility.
Over the long-term, Africa’s competitiveness will hinge to a great degree on how well we educate our young people. Often, the most talented Africans have sought educational advancement and careers overseas, but a combination of transformational educational technology, growing opportunities at home and the poor global economic climate could see this brain drain becoming a brain gain. Retaining talent, home-grown or otherwise, is critical. Policy that enables skilled Africans to work across our borders more easily will help achieve this goal.
Never have circumstances been more propitious for African business. A rise in disposable incomes, high rates of urbanization and a fast-growing working-age population speak of an emerging class of purchasers of consumer goods, financial services and infrastructure, as well as a potential source of manpower for industrialization and agricultural development.
Africans must explore ways to move beyond regional differences and competition to build Africa together from within, so that Africans at all levels become the primary beneficiaries of the continent’s growth.

Unite And Prosper

The lines were drawn across a giant map of Africa at this gathering of the great and the good in business, in Cape Town. The expensive business of pouring billions of dollars into making these lines on a map into trade routes plied by high-speed planes, trains and trucks, will make-or-break of the African dream.
More than 1,000 delegates arrived at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Cape Town, on May 9, to discuss the practicalities of building infrastructure to nurture the emerging economies of Africa. It is a herculean task, to say the least, with the World Bank estimating the continent needs $93 billion to complete the job. Experts say the cost may be much more.
Plans have been drawn up for trade corridors traversing the continent. They include: a swifter trade route between oil-rich Angola and South Africa; plus, an ambitious plan to improve the rails, roads, ports and airports between Cape Town and Cairo—a dream that is likely to have the old colonialist, Cecil John Rhodes, chuckling in his grave in the Matopos Hills, near Bulawayo in Zimbabwe.
“It is ironic that democratic African nations, that have turned their back on colonialism, are trying to revive a plan hatched by the colonialist Cecil Rhodes more than a century ago,” says Ebrahim Patel, South Africa’s economic development minister.
To execute these plans, experts have drawn up a list of 50 priority projects that will be whittled down to 15 in the next six months. They include the expansion of the Grand Inga Dam hydroelectric plan in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the boosting of infrastructure to help extract gas from the waters off the coast of Mozambique.
“It is a wonderful vision but getting it done is something else,” says Nick Chism, the global head for Infrastructure at KPMG, who has been studying infrastructure worldwide for 20 years.
Chism believes a shortage of skills and finance are likely to be among the biggest hurdles. He also warns there could be tension between nations, before the list of 15 projects is decided, over what is built where.
“The idea is to build infrastructure in hubs, that is, a good airport in one country, a good port in the neighboring country and so on. As you can imagine, each country wants the best of everything built in their own backyard,” says Chism.
Despite these warnings and the dismissal by critics of WEF as a mere talk shop, there was optimism among the millionaires, entrepreneurs, technocrats and government officials, who gathered in Cape Town.
“I think things are starting to gel. We are in a lot better space than we were a decade ago,” says Trevor Manuel, South Africa’s minister of national planning.
Money, in a shallow world capital market, is likely to be the most insurmountable object. But Nigerian entrepreneur, Tony Elumelu, who invested recently in a $300 million power plant at home and put money into the launch of Rwanda’s new commodity exchange, sees hope.
“The best of Africa’s entrepreneurs are seeking investment opportunities in the continent… If we invest in Africa, we will get others to follow,” says Elumelu.
Folorunsho Alakija, reputed to be the richest woman in Africa, with a personal fortune, estimated by FORBES, of $600 million, has made her money through the license to the rich Agbami oil block off the coast of Nigeria. The block has 1.2 billion barrels of oil.
“We shouldn’t be waiting for handouts from other countries; we should get together to make our way forward, by ourselves, to give our people pride… There are plenty of opportunities in agriculture. Nigeria is importing so much rice. I do not think we should be importing anything from anyone,” says Alakija.
If optimism were cash, Africa’s infrastructure problems could be sorted before WEF reconvenes in Nigeria in May.
As it stands, there is a lot of fund raising and tough talking to be done. Cautious investors from New York to Beijing have to be won over. Despite the promise of returns of more than 20%, this is likely to be a hard sell. Africa is rising with an average growth rate of 5% at a time when the rest of the world is at a standstill. Few at this annual talk fest could disagree that the economies are moving, but finance needs to keep pace.

Tag: WEF

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