The African continent has become an investment destination of interest to many foreign investors. Key considerations attracting investors to the continent include the enactment of investment-friendly policies that induce better regimes of ease of doing business by national governments, sustained investments in backbone infrastructure – in transportation, power, energy, telecommunications – as well as investment opportunities that attract all categories of investors. There are also undeniable indigenous success stories across the continent which underline the fact that investors can profit from the many observed social phenomena on the continent, namely the youth demographic which virtually constitutes 65% of the entire population, removal of multiple taxation, initiatives that induce monetary and fiscal stability, prospects of export promotion and import substitution to name a few, and these positively impact the continent’s investment climate and economy.

Investment opportunities exist in the key sectors of the economy – mineral resources, construction, transportation, agriculture, power, energy, health, and tourism, especially around servicing components and value-chains that drive each.

Africa’s transport sector confronts one with a lot of promise everywhere you turn. The sector is underdeveloped, no doubt, and thus investment opportunities will be harnessed through innovations which could transform the sector, including the introduction of engine boats and ferries to replace the age-long and traditional means of river transportation – wooden canoes and inflated vessels.

The untapped agricultural potential around the continent’s major rivers is incredible, more so where such areas have the comparative advantage of proximity to major cities or regions with high population densities where the cost of food is significantly high. Siting of major agricultural projects in such areas, including the deployment of a value-chain approach that attracts agro-input suppliers to the area, food processing plants, and export brokers, will make a lot of difference. Opportunities within the tourism sector can be harnessed quite similarly, through creation of special purpose vehicles or public-private partnership arrangements that could deliver project after project on sustainable basis.

Experts have cited a number of factors as being responsible for the sharp decline in the appetite to invest on the continent. The factors include inadequate power supply which rubs negatively on the operating costs of investments, high cost of obtaining bank credit which sometimes is procured with double-digit interests, insecurity which raises the risk profile of investments, weak public institutions that cannot enforce contracts, pervasive levels of corruption which ensures that mere procurement contracts are not given on merit, policy inconsistency which sets investment decision clocks back and forth, lack of the political will to back promises with tangible actions – thus the usual reference to ‘political statement’ which routinely describes statements of key government officials. These formed the nauseating cocktail that has unfortunately triggered the continent’s unacceptable investment climate.

There exists a compelling need for a credible magazine which has core African interests to highlight the opportunities for investment on the continent which flows from the sustained economic reforms and the gains vice-a-vise the obvious challenges. This magazine (in print and online formats) will zero-in as well as profile investment opportunities to its readers across the globe. It will also provide timely updates on policy changes, social dynamics and emerging market-trends that may be of interest to all categories of investors, including prospective African Businessmen and Businesswomen in the Diaspora. The African Business Quest Magazine with a vast network of reporters on-ground will provide useful information and updates to address the yawning gap created by the lack of credible and actionable information which impedes effective business decision making among prospective investors with interests on the continent. “