The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today launched the Africa Business Initiative (ABI) intended to help bridge the investment gap between the United States and Africa. Together with Baird's Communications Management Consultants, ABI today also released a report entitled The Conversation Behind the Boardroom: How Corporate America Really Views Africa. Driving the study is the ever-perplexing question of why Africa has not attracted more attention from the U.S. business community.
The answer, it seems, is that Africa is attracting the attention of U.S. businessmen - particularly in the technology sectors, and particularly now more than ever - but the costs of investment (political instability, a general lack of a business-conducive framework, and a poorly defined rule of law, among others) continue to outweigh the potential profits to be reaped.
What would it take for corporate America to fully take the African plunge? In short: a stable political environment; an educated (African) workforce; a fair business environment; and improved infrastructure. Goodness! If this is, indeed, the wish list then any such investment may be a lonnng way off! Given that the Chinese seem to have little trouble with the continent's current state of affairs, too, many African states now have little incentive to reform so as to accommodate U.S. desires. If nothing else, such U.S. demands may well result in more African leaders 'looking East,' much to the disadvantage of American corporations.
Regardless, the report itself is quite interesting and forms the first part of a two-party study. Part two, The Public Sector Conversation, will be conducted over the next several months and will focus on African government responses to the corporate American responses put forward in the currently available study. This may be quite telling, indeed!