Africa is ripe for investment – Adesina

Investors at the 22nd International Economic Forum of the Americas – Conference of Montreal, hosted by Dentons Canada, have been encouraged to turn their sights on Africa whose economy is growing at 3.6 percent, quite higher than global economic growth of 3.2 percent.

Akinwumi Adesina, president, African Development Bank Group (AfDB) speaking at the event, told over 30 invites that Africa was a very resilient continent, and was one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

“Africa is doing reasonably well in a really tough environment. The greatest challenge facing Africa today is youth unemployment. There are about 10 and 12 million young Africans entering the workforce each year, yet only 3 million formal jobs are created annually,” Adesina said.

Chairman of the event, Michel Brunet, said “the time is ripe to invest in Africa and Canadian, encouraged investors to look for long-term opportunities’ on the continent.”

- Advertisement -

“Africa will be the continent of tomorrow. In my view, it’s a good place to invest,” Jean Chretien, former Canadian Prime Minister, said, adding that Canadians had historically worked well with African countries.

Sharing his experience, he said on his travels in Africa, he was struck by the enormous energy potential in the Democratic Republic of Congo, saying, “The Congo River and the potential for electricity that they have in that country is greater than all the electricity produced in Quebec. And there is enough power potential there to provide electricity to the 800 million people of the African continent. The potential is fantastic.” Chretien said that, sadly, for a decade, Canada was much less engaged with Africa, and those years are lost.

Nevertheless, the Canadian government must now work very hard to re-engage with African countries, as “We had built a good reputation in Africa. It will come back. Now, we have to go back and be more present in Africa. We should not look at Africa like it needs help; we should look at opportunities for investment.”

PRECIOUS ALINTA