The African economies will grow despite the global economic crisis. This is what many experts said during the Word economic forum annual meeting, held in Davos, Switzerland, last week.
Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of THISDAY Newspapers, made the case for more investments in Africa, as reported on Afrika.no.
In the same article many experts argued that as Africa is not very much integrated into the global capital markets, except South Africa, this wil limit the effects of the crisis in Africa. “The tempered optimism on Africa’s growth in 2009 is fuelled by the fact that its capital markets are not integrated globally, except for South Africa, thereby limiting the effects of the crisis on Africa”.
“Obaigbena, who moderated a dinner session on “The Africa You Don’t Know”, asked investors to think of the continent in terms of “what we can do for Africa and what Africa can do for us”, highlighting the fact that in the face of the global financial crisis, South Africa’s ABSA Bank is now worth more than UK’s Barclays Bank even though the British bank has 53.96 per cent stake in ABSA”, as written on Afrika.no
“In global news coverage, Africa takes between 1 and 2 per cent,” he said. “And even at that, 80 per cent of news on Africa is about wars, famine and corruption. There is far more to report about Africa than that. For instance, many African countries have now embraced democracy. Guinea which recently witnessed a coup has been suspended from the sub-regional association on the account of this. Nigeria is now in the 10th year of unbroken democratic rule. No matter how slow things appear to be, we are making progress.”
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