Africa remains the world’s next business frontier – Dr. Akinwumi Adesina

Africa as a continent has remained a fertile ground for investment but depends very much on its ability to boost its healthcare sector.

This disclosure was made by Akinwumi A. Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) during the Africa Investment organized by the UK Department for International Trade themed, “Building back better – utilizing UK private sector strengths and values, and business-to-business opportunities working with UK government and others going forward”

According to Dr. Adesina, “Africa still possessed the same fundamentals that had driven the continent’s phenomenal growth over the past decade”

“The fundamentals in those phenomenal growth rates in Africa are still there…Africa still leads in terms of ease of doing business…It’s very exciting, the digital explosion that you see in Africa today”

Mrs Wade-Smith, Her Majesty’s UK Trade Commissioner for Africa, was visibly excited to note that 10 of the fastest-growing economies were still in Africa, though not much was known of the technological innovations happening in the region.

According to Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister, “many things have changed since last year, there is one thing I can tell you that has not changed: that is my ambition for the UK to be Africa’s investment partner.”

What you should know

• The conference brought together the UK and African business and government leaders to discuss investment and partnership opportunities.
• This year’s conference is a continuation of the last year’s successful UK-Africa Investment Summit which was hosted in London by the Prime Minister, where 27 trade and investment deals worth £5 billion and commitments valued at £8.9 billion were announced.
• Four critical sectors were spotlighted as follows: sustainable infrastructure, renewable energy, financial and professional services, and agriculture and agri-tech.
• It is expected with the impetus and full benefits of AfCFTA to the African nations, the continent would attract more investments and grow bigger
• The African economy is hopefully to grow by 3.4% in 2021, though it shrank by 2.1% in 2020, as the global economy is expected to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Africa has only 365 pharmaceutical companies, compared to 7,000 in China and 11,000 in India
• Other participants included UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Minister for Africa James Duddridge, Minister for Investment Gerry Grimstone, as well as business leaders from Standard Bank, pharmaceuticals firm AstraZeneca and mobile operator Vodacom.