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Africa: Africa is Fertile for Investment, Says Okonjo-Iweala
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This Day (Lagos)
9 May 2008
Posted to the web 9 May 2008
Constance Ikokwu
Washington, D.c.
World Bank Managing Director and former Nigerian Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday said the success of indigenous African companies such as MTN, proves that investments in Africa are succeeding beyond expectations.
Delivering a speech at a one hour documentary presentation by American journalist, Carol Pineau, on the tremendous investment opportunities in Africa, Okonjo-Iweala cited the case of MTN, a company that is being sought after to be bought at the sum of $35 billion.
She made a case for investment on the continent, saying the MTN example defies the notion that Africa is an economic wasteland and assured her audience of international businessmen and women that Africa is indeed a continent where they can invest their money and expect high returns, in spite of the risks involved.
Okonjo-Iweala identified a new crop of leaders in all sphere of life as the brain behind the success story in Nigeria and other parts of the continent. According to her, these dynamic individuals have realisedthat they cannot survive on aid. They have thus decided to take their destiny into their hands, by tackling head-on, the problems rocking their societies, she added. "We need to put out the story that Africans are recognising that they have to help themselves. That if they do not turn their countries around, do not change domestic policies, do not fight corruption, do not change the pubic service that tries to deliver services to the public instead of doing the contrary, if they do not do this, they will be left far behind," she said.
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Pineau who produced the documentary titled "Africa Investment Horizons," noted that Nigeria has the most dynamic market in Africa in terms of growth."
Married to an Eritrean, Pineau said she is compelled to tellthe positive story on the continent in part, to give her daughter a balanced view of a part of the world often disparaged and viewed as hopeless.The documentary which premiered at the New York Stock Exchange on April 29, gives compelling narratives from international and African business leaders on the potential in Africa's emerging market.
It shows the largest equity fund in Africa where the price of entry is $5 million to a mutual fund in Ghana that has average 60 per cent annual returns,requiring a minimum investment of about $55.
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