AfriBiz February 2009: Africa – The Land of Opportunity in 2009 and Beyond
Originally posted at www.afribiz.info.
2009 started off with a bang! But it’s up to us to navigate it as a period of boom or bust. The reality is the world has very challenging economic issues to deal with at present. But did you know that during the darkest economic times, the light of invention shines through? In a post in the Harvard Business Review’s Editors blog called “Recession: The Mother of Invention,” Joel Prokesch says, “…that the current wave of market upheavals and shifts are providing opportunities for innovations and growth.”
We can apply this to Africa – this period of upheaval is actually providing unique opportunities in Africa for investors and business people, who focus on innovation and growth. Even during this global recession, Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic growth will well out pace the world. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) just reduced the forecast for economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa from over 5% to around a little over 3% for 2009, but the forecast for the world economic growth is only around .5% for this same period. Where there is growth, there is opportunity.
AfriBiz is not alone in seeing the opportunities amongst the challenges. In the Harvard Business Review’s list of “Breakthrough Business Ideas for 2009“, investing in Africa is there! Now is the time to act.
We have compiled three resources to help you with your research:
- The African Country High-Level Economic Landscape table that you can request from info@afribiz.info.
- Our AfriBiz Resource Compilation for February 2009 that you can access here.
- List of resources by country available on our website. Just do a search for the country.
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