The conference strapline was Africa Rising: Unlocking Business Opportunities We spoke with Kemi Tijani, the club’s vice president at INSEAD's Fontainebleau campus, where the conference was held last week.
Speakers including top executives from management consulting, private equity, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), construction and telecommunications.
Kemi, graduated from the University of Abuja, Nigeria with a BSc in Computer Science in 2006 and worked for telecoms firm Layer3 in Nigeria prior to enrolling at INSEAD. She said the main aim of the conference was to give the MBA community at INSEAD a chance to know what Africa is really like.
She said, “Africa is still a black hole to many people and those who claim to know about it and its level of development base their knowledge on assumptions.”
The speakers brought some stats to the table to correct any wrong assumptions or misapprehensions about doing business in Africa. The standout figures for Kemi were the returns quoted by some of the companies doing business in Africa. “I don’t think you get returns like that in other places”, she said.
The conference held two panel sessions that gave an overview of the business climate in Africa and tried to explain the new wave of ‘Afro-optimism’ in the global community. They addressed questions such as why Africa is attractive to investors and how to distinguish opportunities from challenges. Some of the speakers used their experiences of doing business in Africa to illustrate that there are profits to be made.
The panelists were: Dr. Mohamed (Mo) Ibrahim, a Sudanese born mobile communications entrepreneur and billionaire; Nicholas Norbrook, Managing Editor of the Africa Report; Imoni Akpofure, INSEAD MBA 94 and Director within the Western Europe Department of the International Finance Corporation; Anat Bar-Gera, INSEAD MBA 87 and Chairperson of 4G Africa; Simon Harford, INSEAD MBA 94 and Co-head of Actis' Africa Business for; Luc Rigouzzo, Executive President and Managing Partner of AMETHIS Finance; Joëlle de Montgolfier, Senior Director of Bain & Company's Consumer Products, Retail and Luxury Practice for the EMEA region; Tidiani (Jeff) Tall, Vice President, Strategy, Development and M&A at Lafarge; Lionel Zinsou, Managing Director of PAI Investment; and Jean-Michel Severino, Managing Director of I&P Management.
Around 300 people attended the conference.
“It wasn’t about saying that Africa is great and that everyone needs to go there, rather it was about putting things in context using facts and statistics to show that you can do business there if you want to”, sais Kemi. She continued, “Getting someone like Mo Ibrahim who shockingly, many people hadn’t heard of or Anat Bar-Gera who is providing internet services in Cameroon and impacting on the economy and the lives of the everyday Cameroonians really shows that doing business in Africa is viable”.
Dr. Mo Ibrahim, who gave the keynote speech, is an expert in mobile communications with a distinguished academic and business career. Dr. Ibrahim was a Technical Director with BT's Cellnet where he launched the first cellular service in the UK in 1985. In 1989, he founded Mobile Systems International (MSI), a technology consultancy and software business. The company was sold in 2000 for $900million.
He also founded Celtel in 1998 to build and operate mobile networks in Africa. Celtel became one of Africa's most successful companies with operations in 16 countries. The company was sold to MTC Kuwait in 2005 for $3.4billion.
In 2004, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation launched an initiative to recognize achievement in African leadership and stimulate debate on good governance across sub-Saharan Africa and the world. The Foundation publishes the Ibrahim Index of African Governance in collaboration with the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. The Foundation also established the annual African Leadership Award, a $1 million awarded to the best African leader.
Agriculture, fast moving consumer goods, telecommunications and financial services were some of the industries identified with high growth potential. Imoni Akpofure of the IFC shared some statistics on African markets. Growth right across the continent is running above 5%, with at least five countries predicted by the IMF to grow by as much as 8% next year, and another five growing between 6% and 8%.
Simon Harford of private equity firm Actis was formerly CEO of Virgin Nigeria Airways, but had to pull out for reasons linked to corruption. However, Kemi pointed out, he still had positive things to say about doing business in Africa.
Tidani Tall from cement products giant Lafarge went into the issue of competition, saying that there was enough room for growth for companies that would be met with fierce competitors in other markets. With populations in places such as Nigeria growing rapidly, agriculture and FMCGs were big money-making markets.
The point of the conference was to provide information and also get people excited about the future of Africa, said Kemi. People often complain that there are a lack of funds for entrepreneurs but speakers such as Simon Harford, Luc Rigouzzo, and Jean-Michel Severino who work in private equity and venture capital showed that contrary to that myth, there are VCs and private equity firms that are pouring money into promising projects and getting healthy returns.
Going forward, the Africa Club plans to host the conference every year, alternating between the France and the Singapore Campuses. As Asia’s investment in Africa becomes increasingly significant, the Africa Club feels that INSEAD needs to facilitate these important dialogues in both Europe and Asia.
As for Kemi, she plans to enter management consulting when she completes her programme. She would like to gain professional experieince outside of Africa before returning to start something of her own.
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