PIA Background

Africa’s economic pulse has quickened, providing the continent with a new commercial vibrancy. Real GDP rose by nearly 5% from 2000 through 2010, more than twice the growth rate achieved in the 1980s and ’90s. Telecommunications, banking, and retailing are flourishing. Construction is booming. Private-investment inflows are surging. This has been aided by a shift in the continent’s terms of trade, spurred by demand from China and India for natural resources, and fuelling a boom in commodities, including oil and the promise of far-reaching investment programmes in infrastructure.

The flow of money from the investment community entering Africa remains strong. Improved fiscal discipline, liberalisation of the key sectors of certain key economies, and the re-emergence of a middle class in countries such as Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana are confidence-inspiring factors.

In the World Bank’s most recent Ease of Doing Business rankings, 14 African countries ranked ahead of Russia, 16 ahead of Brazil and 17 ahead of India. It is also encouraging that according to the IFC’s 2012 Doing Business Report, 28 of 46 governments in Sub-Saharan Africa implemented at least one regulatory reform making it easier to do business—a total of 44 reforms.

Nonetheless, sub-Saharan Africa’s 48 countries still rank among the world’s lowest-scoring countries in the World Bank’s annual reports on the Ease of Doing Business. The region’s average ranking on the ease of doing business is 140 out of 185. Furthermore, Africa faces serious challenges, including poverty, disease, and high infant mortality.

Through its work, the Private Investors for Africa (PIA) is seeking to address some of the barriers that are creating this paradox, and thus help to create a more uniformly positive climate for investment in Africa.