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Cape Town - If Africa business wants to take advantage of African opportunities, they must put pressure on their governments to take a business friendly approach when drafting or revising policy," according to Janine Myburgh, president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
"If there is one great big obstacle standing squarely in our way of enticing investment into Africa, it’s the unenviable reputation for our tolerance of corruption – at both a public and a private level," warned Myburgh at the chamber's third annual Doing Business in Africa event.
"This requires business to take a strong line. It also makes the case for a strong business voice led by the chamber movement even more compelling."
The Cape Chamber, for example, is designing an extended exporting programme to investigate trade opportunities as well as ways to mitigate risks for companies looking to export or which are already exporting.
"This, in conjunction with the Doing Business in Africa initiative, will allow companies to access information from industry experts from across South Africa and Africa," said Myburgh.
"It will also ensure companies can tap into networks which will give them on-the-ground experiential information on investment destinations they are investigating."
In partnership with Chamber Trade Sweden, the Cape Chamber has accelerated the development and launch of its dispute settlement centre, including partnerships with a number of African chambers of commerce.
Focus on banking
Both local and international banks are increasingly focused on the opportunities African growth can give them, according to Myburgh.
"Bankers and government officials believe that as ordinary workers gain access to basic banking facilities and the emerging middle classes gain access to more sophisticated financial services, there should be a feedback loop to greater spending and consumption, and hence further economic expansion, she said.
"Financial institutions also seem more committed to the region as we begin to see more banks opening in multiple countries."
Cross-border banking will have significant benefits for companies looking to expand their African operations.
Mobile reach
"The ubiquity of the cell phone has also shifted the opportunity for businesses," said Myburgh.
M-Pesa Kenya is now responsible for more than half of mobile remittances globally with more than 40% of Kenya’s GDP traveling over the country’s mobile network infrastructure.
"It is clear that if you are looking to reach the African consumer, you must seriously factor in mobile opportunities," said Myburgh.
Opportunities north of the SA border
Despite the slightly gloomy South African picture, or rather because of it, SA must take the opportunities north of our borders more seriously, according to Myburgh.
But this also requires a few cautionaries.
"O’Neill goes on to point out that African policy makers should be asking whether the recent improvement in the region's economy and the rising interest of foreign investors is thanks to them or thanks to a decade of strong commodity prices and staggeringly supportive monetary policies in the US and other advanced economies, which caused investors to search far and wide for decent returns," cautioned Myburgh.
The current external environment has already turned less friendly.
China's growth is slowing, commodity prices have eased, and the US Federal Reserve is scaling back its bond purchases.
- Fin24
