Monday, September 21, 2009

Doing Business In Africa

The 7th Biennial U.S.-Africa Business Summit will be held September 29th - October 1st in Washington, DC at the Washington Convention Center.

Small business owners are invited to join The Corporate Council on Africa’s (CCA) and more than 1,500 of the private and public sector's top leaders to find out about business and investment opportunities in Africa.

Below is a recent Q&A interview conducted by USA Today with Stephen Hayes, president and CEO of CCA:

For most small business owners, the cultural and distance barriers involved in doing business with Africa seem insurmountable. Why is it worth their while to investigate the possibilities?

There's a great deal of negative publicity surrounding Africa, and that tends to be all that people hear. But in reality there are 53 countries on the continent and in many of them, there are an enormous amount of positive things happening. There are extraordinarily promising possibilities in agribusiness, infrastructure, and tourism.

A lot of that negative publicity that you mentioned involves war, natural disaster, and governments steeped in corruption. Those don't seem like ideal business conditions.

Well, the charge of corruption is valid in some countries. But you have to remember that there are disasters and corruption all over the world, including in South America and North America. That doesn't preclude us doing business there.

Which African countries offer the most promise for business exchanges?

The best possibilities are in the southern half of the continent, countries like Mozambique, South Africa, Mauritius, and Namibia. Ghana has enormous potential in its ports, fisheries, and tourism, as does Botswana.

Nigeria is also a booming market where a lot of new things are happening, but it's a tough place to do business and you really have to know your partners.

Another area doing surprisingly well, by the way, are the Sub-Saharan countries of Burkina Faso and Mali. They get high marks for business development, but they are French-speaking so often the trade there gravitates to France.

What's on the agenda at your summit specifically for smaller companies?

The Africa Trade Office has [received] a $400,000 developmental grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration to run a matchmaking program for small- and mid-sized businesses. They will be given the opportunity to easily identify prospective business partners and sign up electronically for brief introductory meetings before and during the summit.

The summit also offers 50 industry-specific workshops based on the knowledge of how to do things in African business, new ideas in the field, and so forth.


For more details about the summit, interested ones should visit:
http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=a83433d4-f64f-4adb-aeda-0525c94ca0eb

No comments:

Post a Comment