allAfrica.com: Africa: 'Africa Open for Business' - Stories That Deserve to Be Reported (Page 1 of 3)

Business activity is a subject that is sometimes missed in international reporting about Africa. Despite that, Africa produces some impressive economic statistics: a 144 percent annual return by the Ghana Stock Exchange, high savings rates and low corruption in Botswana, and South African firms that are investing across the continent and listing on stock exchanges in Britain and the United States. With large and expanding markets for communication and technology, agriculture and mining, Africa has countless untapped investment opportunities.

In a one-hour documentary entitled "Africa Open for Business," Carol Pineau, who has reported from Africa for CNN and French radio and television, explores stories she says are generally missing from coverage. She interviews local entrepreneurs who are seeking opportunities and making business happen, portraying a side of Africa that most people outside the continent do not see. The stories of 10 companies tell a balanced tale of the struggle, the costs and the potential of doing business in Africa. She spoke with AllAfrica about the film and her efforts to improve the quality of reporting on Africa. Excerpts:

What made you want to do a film about African business?

The issue to me was to show a different Africa, an Africa that I knew was there, that anyone who has been there knows exists, but is never shown in the media. Something that was asked of me recently, "Have you ever seen Africans in love?" We show Africans as if they have no love life. How did the continent get so populated? We don't show them having any family life, no civic life. We show an Africa that is void of any economic life.

I wanted to show that Africa is as complex as America, as Europe, as everywhere else, and not this one-dimensional caricature. The wars, the famine, it's all been done. We've seen that. I wanted to show the people who are in charge of their own destiny, who are making their own decisions, right or wrong. I wanted to make a film where there were no victims. You could love them, you could hate them - it didn't matter to me. It was going at the story of Africa in a very different way. After years doing reports on Aids and wars and things no one seemed to care about, [I thought] what do Americans like? They like money, so let's do money.

What criteria did you use to choose the countries and businesses you show in the film?

People think that I am selling 10 countries or 10 businesses, and I've been really clear that that's absolutely not it. Clearly, I am not selling Somalia as a great business destination! The idea was to show a balance geographically, a balance linguistically, a balance as far as the good and the bad. You have Botswana and then you have Somalia. What I wanted to show was that no matter where you are, no matter what your country is, no matter what your governance or lack thereof is, entrepreneurship goes on. There is an African spirit, a drive, there in the continent and many times it's thwarted but it still exists.

As far as the businesses [featured in the film], I found them in a haphazard way. Anyone who has done reporting, [knows] that, you get into Kampala and say, "I wanna do coffee. The president is always talking about coffee, what am I going to do? This guy is not home and this guy is out of town, and this guy his partner is not here so he can't meet with me." I found this guy and he's so fabulous.

A lot of these were found through Google. It's as simple as that. What I think is so incredible is that [if] through such haphazard means I found 10 incredible stories, there's got to be thousands more like them throughout the continent. They're under the radar because we're just not looking in that area. But they're there and a lot of them you can't say necessarily they're thriving, but I don't think the issue is thriving or not thriving. The issue is that they are really working to get in charge of their own destiny, and that's the Africa we don't show.

What reaction have you received from U.S. and other businesses?

There have been specialized screenings with businesses and we've targeted policymakers, investors and image makers - people who can change the way we think about investment into Africa. Africa offers the highest return on direct investment in the world. That's well established. The interesting thing though is that Africa attracts the least amount of foreign direct investment. And that doesn't make sense. Money goes where it makes money. Why isn't it going into Africa? A lot of people say it's because of risk, bad governance, and corruption. But that's not the complete story.

Look at Botswana: A+ credit rating, absolute democracy since independence more than 50 years ago, highest per capita savings in the world with maybe a handful of other countries in the world like Singapore, listed in the top ten of least corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International. So why isn't money flooding into Botswana? It's not. They're having just as hard a time as everyone else. It's because the image of Africa is coast-to-coast violence and mayhem, interspersed by a few animal parks. So where am I supposed to send my investment money? Am I supposed to send it to a refugee camp? Am I supposed to send it to an animal park? What is there? People don't even know that there are buildings, high-rises.

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