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.