Group Woos
Corporate America To Invest In Africa
A
US-Africa trade advocacy group, The Corporate Council on Africa
says Africa urgently needs investment from corporate America for
the billions in annual aid to become effective.
Head of Stephen Hayes, the president and chief executive officer
of the council said investment by US companies in Africa was not
enough and the Obama administration should formulate a strong
policy to address this.
Investment by companies in Africa, which has been hard hit by
the global financial crisis and recession, has been frustrated
by high levels of bureaucracy and corruption as well as
insufficient infrastructure.
Hayes said,”Unless you have a partner on the ground, it's hard
to become invested in the country; we need to start developing a
new vision toward Africa.’’
The International Monetary Fund estimates that output in Africa
will expand by just 1 percent this year, after growing about 6.5
percent annually between 2002 and 2007, which was the highest
rate in 30 years.
Growth next year was expected to pick up to just over 4 percent.
REUTERS/Yinka
