Africa Summit Aims to Help Investors Move Beyond Lip Service

There’s a standard trope in the U.S. business community focused on Africa: It’s always the continent of the future. 

Despite declarations of dynamism that center on Africa’s vast resources, young population or swathes of arable land, American investment has not only been slow to materialize, but has also lagged that of other countries, principally China. 

A group of investors and entrepreneurs in Atlanta and around the Southeast U.S. is looking to change that by helping members of the diaspora, both African and African American, put their money where their mouth is by demystifying a land comprising 54 countries, a billion-plus people and untold potential. 

The inaugural African Diaspora Investment Summit, which drew attendees from across the U.S. and from Uganda and Ethiopia, was designed to introduce venture-capital firms to opportunities on the continent, fostering familiarity over fear and helping “aggregate capital” to drive growth, said Larry Yon, co-founder of North Carolina-based CyberAlliance and an organizer of the conference. 

“There is a wide gap and there is a lack of understanding on how to adjust for risk,” said Mr. Yon, also a co-organizer of the conference. Cyber Alliance, which works in Africa and recently signed an agreement in Zimbabwe, is working with other companies and fund managers to “create that bridge.” 

As a followup to the event, Mr. Yon is helping lead an investor tour in South Africa this month that will included a stop at the South Africa Innovation Summit in Cape Town Sept. 19-20.

The goal is for investors familiarize themselves with opportunities, then come back and share with their peer groups, Mr. Yon said. 

During the three-day event at the Intercontinental Buckhead Aug. 28-30, a slew of speakers and experts got that work started. 

Olivier Kamanzi, Chairman and CEO of the Africa Global Chamber of Commerce, a co-organizer of the event along with the South African Embassy in the United States, challenged those present to stop talking and start investing. 

“We have experts here who can help us to set up that fund to get it done. What takes is what you are doing right now,” Mr. Kamanzi said. “If we are serious about the diaspora coming together, working together, collaboratively doing something, let’s create a fund and then come back next year and say this is what we have done.” 

Too often, Mr. Kamanzi noted, Africa is left producing commodities while developed countries turn them into value-added products, he said, noting that the majority of the world’s cacao is grown in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, then fashioned into chocolate in places like Switzerland and Belgium. 

His company exports pineapples and cassava from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but investment downstream has been slow to come, as the country has only recently been reauthorized under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA. 

“It’s just perception. People feel like you cannot invest in the DRC,” Mr. Kamanzi said, despite its vast mineral and agricultural wealth.  

AGOA, which gives thousands of Africa-produced crops and manufactured goods preferential tariff treatment in the United States, is only as good as African companies’ ability to navigate it, said Shaquana Teasley, an Atlanta-based expert with Agate Solutions who helped organize the conference. 

Understanding how to classify a product can mean the difference between profit and loss — and keeping it from the costly headache of being held up in customs. 

Ms. Teasley used her own colorful dress as an object lesson — its material, origin and cut making a difference as to whether it qualifies for AGOA and how it’s tariffed coming into the U.S. 

Small and medium-sized businesses in Africa have a unique opportunity to capture market share amid the U.S. trade war with China, she said, but basic trade knowledge is a crucial starting point. 

“Can we compete and win? No, because we don’t even understand the trade strategies enough to have a conversation. Therefore, we don’t know our ask,” Ms. Teasley said. 

Beyond consultants like her, organizations like Wesgro can also help. The marketing and investment recruitment arm of the Western Cape province had a presence at the conference through Azra Fredericks, who runs its technology desk recruiting global brands to set up outposts in Cape Town and beyond. 

Whether it’s tech, agriculture or manufacturing, Wesgro can assist companies in their search for real estate, customers, tax savings or quality employees, leveraging its role at the nexus of government and industry. 

“Wesgro is basically the middle point between private and public, and that is both at a provincial level and a national level,” Ms. Fredericks said. “So that is really where we kind of hold a certain power for investors and for potential buyers into South Africa.” 

On the trade side, the province operates the Cape Trade Portal, an online database of Made in the Cape products that are showcased each year at the annual conference of the same name. 

Kwabena Osei-Sarpong, a member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa, said in brief remarks that beyond sourcing products, companies should look to tap into Africa’s “secret sauce”: its people. 

The CEO of RIFE International, Mr. Osei-Sarpong added that a mix of investment in health care, agribusiness and sustainable energy, his field of expertise, will help Africa reach its full potential. This segment often benefits from government aid, like USAID and Power Africa grants, but it will require persistent focus from the private sector as well, he added. 

“Running a business focused on cleantech is not as glamorous as some might think: It’s a lot like trying to teach your grandma to use Zoom. You might have to explain things many times, but once she gets it, it’s incredibly rewarding,” he said. 

Trade and investment should always foreground human growth and development, said Ann McMikel, executive director of Shared Interest, a New York nonprofit founded 30 years ago by activists that fought apartheid in South Africa. 

Shared Interest helps generate guarantees from governments and other funders that in turn reduce risk for traditional banks investing projects like housing and small-business growth. 

In its three decades, the organization has unlocked $130 million that has assisted women entrepreneurs and other underserved groups, said Ms. McMikel, who works out of Atlanta and was pleased to see the investment conference taking place here instead of New York. 

“Let me just say, as a Black woman, when you invest in us, you are investing in innovation, you’re investing sustainable development and in the economic empowerment to really provide the kinds of change we want to see inside the Sustainable Development Goals.” 

The program also drew participation from Afrexim Bank, the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Program, with which CyberAlliance signed a memorandum of understanding on the second conference day.

Learn more at https://africadiasporainvests.com.