Challenges & Solutions

The Ideal

_____________________

Infusion of long-term North American

capital investments in Africa's key

national or regional projects

The Challenge

Africa attracts

less than 5 percent

of aggregate global

direct investment*

The Products

_____________________

Advisory on establishing sales pipelines

in North America for Africa's foremost

developing finance institutions

The Solution

_____________________

To change the status quo in the short-term,

we shall identify viable North American equity partners for Africa's investment-grade entities

The Ideal

_____________________

North America playing a

lead role in providing impact investment capital resources

to viable ventures in Africa.

The Challenge

Africa attracts

less than 0.8 percent

of United States direct

investment abroad**

The Solution

_____________________

To leverage current public & private sector

programs to close the information & cultural

distance between North American capital

and African opportunities.

The Products

_____________________

Advisory on establishing country

engagement programs with North American

public and private sector entities

Advisory

Internationalization

The Ideal

_____________________

Fully operational DFI branches

in North America to carry out business development & investor relations activities

The Products

_____________________

- Account Management

- Local Representation

- Coordination with HQs

- Meet & Greet/Logistics

The Challenge

Circuits of [global]

capital continue to

pass by Africa on their

way to other

frontier markets***

The Solution

_____________________

Use the collaborative office model

to provide DFIs with ICT & logistical resources to establish a permanent presence and rapid response

unit in North America

Advocacy

The Challenge

Information Asymmetry

between North American capital

and African opportunity has

a negative effect on foreign

direct investment

The Ideal

_____________________

A time when perception does

not exact too-high a transaction

cost on African opportunities

The Products

_____________________

Thought-leadership & strategic communication interventions and campaigns to promote investment-ready products & services

The Solution

_____________________

Prioritize elementary Information, Education and Communication attributes to lead to behavioral change campaigns on North American direct investment

The Challenge

With internationalization

still considered a priority,

Africa's national investment &

export promotion agencies are

ill-equipped to artfully conduct

commercial diplomacy

The Ideal

_____________________

Africa's investment & export promotion activities semi-autonomously supporting commercial diplomacy via private-sector driven units in developed countries

The Products

_____________________

- Account Management

- North American Representation

- Coordination with Head Office

- Meet & Greet/Logistics

The Solution

_____________________

To hire African diaspora in North America,

providing them with avenues to contribute

to the continent's growth via their under-

utilized roles as cultural brokers****

Notes

1. According to the World Bank, Africa only attracted 1 percent of global FDI inflows in 2000. By 2018, these figures

had grown to about 3 percent by 2018. Our 5 percent figure is an average from the twenty years between 2000 and 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, UNCTAD forecast that FDI flows to the continent would contract between 25 percent and 40 percent based on various investment determinants, including GDP growth projections. Africa's Top Five sources of FDI in 2020 were: Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and China.

2. In 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the cumulative historical United States direct investment abroad had reached US$ 6.15 trillion, with over 70 percent going to western Europe. While countries like China, Japan, and Singapore attracted individual USDIA of between US$ 100 billion and US$ 250 billion, all fifty-five Member States of the African Union together drew in less than US$ 46 billion in USDIA.

3. We view the circuit of capital mainly as a time-variant; where money capital, productive capital, and commodity capital, in turn, replace each other. Capital in circulation mostly goes to industrialization, production of goods, and trade in commodities.

4. A cultural broker is, typically, one that intercedes on behalf of one group to another. Cultural brokers are at

the heart of international business. Country ambassadors represent the epitome of cultural brokerage; they represent their country to the people of another country. In today's commercial diplomacy space--combined with the prevalence of social media--there are numerous opportunities for individuals to serve as cultural brokers.