Once in a while this column agrees with President Museveni, especially in an era when there is not a whole lot to agree on. Corruption is running rampant, no election comes and goes without bones being broken, and the state bureaucracy is still incompetent.

Just look at the urban decay or even the lousy completion rate of the much-vaunted UPE. It stands at 44 percent. There is no value for money there yet instead of fixing that first, the government has already plunged into universal secondary education.

But on Wednesday, President Museveni was in vintage mode speaking at a business luncheon in Washington, DC. He said American companies were so focused on China they were missing mouth-watering investment opportunities in Africa, which is growing faster than it has ever done for three decades.

He castigated investor ratings that exaggerate and generalise the continent's problems. Much of the growth Africa is experiencing - growth will exceed 5 percent this year - is largely powered by high commodity prices on the international market. But even after accounting for oil - oil exporters such as Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria are posting very impressive rates and pulling up the overall average for the so-called sub-Saharan Africa - the numbers still look good because of improved domestic policy reforms.

But there is a cautionary tale to all this. The present commodity boom could turn bust spoiling the party. Booms and busts will come but busts should not allow Africa to slip into decline again. And that is where the President's message comes in.

Africa needs serious foreign investment. Things are not so bad after all. Not as bad as they were a decade ago. There is more stability across the continent, excepting a few places such as Somalia and Darfur and the madness down in Zimbabwe. There is money to be made by the bundle in Africa by serious investors who can also transfer knowledge and technology. China is not the only place on earth to make money today and tomorrow.

That said, what is Africa doing to sustain its current good fortune? It is the same old story. We need to stop stealing public money, we need to equip ourselves with cutting edge skills, we need to make it easy to start (and fold) a business, and we need to build those roads and railways, and find sustainable energy sources to bring down the cost of doing business so as to be competitive. That is not nuclear science.