“If Irish businesses do not invest in Africa – the fastest growing continent with huge opportunities in the world – someone else will do it.”
That was the message from the founder and CEO of Uganda-based social enterprise Good African Coffee at the 2013 Africa-Ireland Economic Forum, held at the UCD’s Smurfit Graduate Business School on 3 October.
Andrew Rugasira also urged Ireland not to promote negative stereotypes about doing business in Africa.
“Ireland should stop starting discussion about investment in Africa with the challenges,” he said. “An Africa-Chinese business forum would not start by raising challenges.
“Please don’t feel sorry for us,” he added, noting that investors wishing to invest in Africa should not see corruption as the main issue because it is not “a challenge” for him.
Earlier, Ethiopian Minister of Agriculture Tefera Derbew told the more than 350 attendees, including directors and CEOs from over 200 Irish companies and delegates from more than 20 African countries, that Africa “is rising because of new thinking, new opportunities and growth as well as in confidence”.
He echoed Rugasira’s stance that African countries are attractive for investors because the continent makes up 15 per cent of the world’s population and 20 per cent of the global landmass, and that at present foreign direct investment into Africa is surging as the world continues to realise the continent’s importance.
In his speech, Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said the truth behind the statement that ‘Africa is rising’ provides a good opportunity for business.
According to Minister Coveney, by 2030 the world must find a way to produce “more food and water, and more energy than our present consumption. These challenges are extraordinary and no one country or continent can meet them.”
The minister said Ireland is investing heavily in research and development on how to produce more in a sustainable way, and that this knowledge can be shared with African countries.
“We also have the responsibility to learn from each other,” he said adding that the future of the relationship between African countries and Ireland needs to be based around finding opportunities.
Opening the conference, Minister for Trade and Development Joe Costello, who is leading a trade mission to South Africa and Nigeria in November, said: “From the African side, the consistent message that we are hearing is that African countries want more trade and investment links to help them to grow their economies, to create and sustain employment and livelihoods.”
He added that “mutually beneficial trade is a win-win for Africa and for Ireland”.
Eamon Gilmore, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, later urged Irish companies not to miss the opportunities that currently abound in Africa.
“Africa is generating remarkable economic growth and, according to the IMF, will have the fastest-growing economy of any continent over the next five years,” he said. “This opens up new opportunities for Africa and for Ireland.”
The Tánaiste announced that Irish Aid, in partnership with UCD’s Quinn School of Business, is to establish the Mwangi Business Scholarship in the memory of Mbugua Mwangi, the only child of former Kenyan ambassador to Ireland Catherine Mwangi, who was killed with his fiancée Rosemary Wahito in the recent Nairobi terrorist attack.
Other guest speakers at the forum included Francis Grogan, co-founder of Zambeef Products; Titi Mboweni, former South African minister and chairman of Anglogold Ashanti; and Dr Oluwakemi Bashorun of Trinity College Dublin.
- Members of the Kenyan community in Ireland recently held a fundraising event in aid of the survivors of the attack.
Proceeds were collected by the Irish Red Cross on behalf of the Kenyan Red Cross.
