ONE is embarking on a listening and learning trip to Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya with members of our board and other supporters. Check out this guest post from Papa Madiaw Ndiaye, CEO and founding partner of Advanced Finance & Investment Group (AFIG). In 2004, he was selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum of Davos and then as one of the ‘’Frontier 100 CEOs’’ of the Initiative for Global Development in 2009. Be sure to scroll to the bottom for a short video of Papa discussing foreign investment in Africa:
There are great companies across Africa with huge potential for growth and expansion. With the right capital investment and strategic support they will prosper not only in their national and regional markets, but globally. It is not unreasonable for people who invest their money in Africa today to aspire to substantial returns of as much as 30% per annum over a few years.
This was the message my partners and I shared with a delegation of ONE board members who yesterday visited the Dakar offices of the private equity firm I founded in 2005 – AFIG which stands for Advanced Finance & Investment Group. Our maiden fund – the Atlantic Coast Regional Fund – focuses primarily on West and Central Africa and has a target capitalization of $100M, of which three-quarters has already been raised. Our aim is simple – to pick winning companies and help them grow. To execute our plan, I brought together a team of African professionals with broad financial and operational experience as well as deep knowledge of the markets we cover.
So why should an advocacy organization like ONE be interested in a private equity firm like ourselves? I think there are two main reasons. The first is that the most tried and tested route out of poverty is employment. The successful home-grown African companies we invest in provide good jobs and contribute to wealth creation in the economy more generally. If these companies are helped to grow further, then the developmental benefits are clear.
The second reason is that the sectors we focus on are strategically critical for any country to cut poverty and promote economic development. Agribusiness, the energy sector, infrastructure, light manufacturing, and financial services are all areas where Africa lags behind much of the world and where the upside is huge. Investment in those sectors not only has the promise of good returns for our investors but also for the local economy.
There are of course challenges to running a company like AFIG. I spent many years working on Wall Street and I know the perception of many institutional investors has been that Africa is too risky, too dangerous and too alien a business environment for them to put their money in. This is a misconception that needs to be challenged, not simply for the sake of our business, but for the success of the African private sector as a whole. Good investment and development go hand in hand. We hope ONE can play its role in spreading the word.
ONE is embarking on a listening and learning trip to Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya with members of our board and other supporters. ONE Board Chairman Tom Freston checks in from Dakar, Senegal:
For me the door into Africa has been through its culture, particularly its music. That’s why I came to Africa in the first place. Years ago that unique “African sound” caught my ear and I first went so I could get a closer look. Dakar, the bustling capital of Senegal, was my first stop in what has now become a decades long obsession into the diverse African soundscape.
50 years ago, in celebration of African independence, many West African governments underwrote local musical ensembles as a way to actively project their new identities and the pride they had as new countries. It was a time of exuberance and optimism and that musical investment has now paid unexpected but great dividends for decades. The Rail Band in Mali, for example, yielded players like Salif Keita, Mory Kante, and others. In Senegal these state funded bands morphed into Orchestra Baobab, who fused Cuban and African rhythms, and they gave way to the more modern Mblax sound of Youssou N’Dour and, now great hip hop hybrids. There is plenty to go around on the African musical palate but, for me, West Africa is the most interesting. So, it was great to be back in Dakar with ONE and I hoped we’d all have a good chance to dive in. For those who had never been to Africa before, I knew this would be a way to get them “hooked” and change their perception that Africa was but a place with problems. Rather, first and foremost, it was a place of great beauty and creativity.
Music is everywhere in the air here and, if you are looking, it won’t take long to hear it. Once we landed I got in touch with Baaba Maal, who lives part-time in Dakar and is easily one of the most accomplished and beautiful singers in all of Africa. His 1982 classic acoustic record, with his collaborator, Mansour Seck, called “D’jam Leeli” (check it out on iTunes….I swear, it’s the “Kind of Blue” of African music). It was my real introduction to African music years ago. What a sound it is. Lo and behold, it turns out he’s in town and happy to hear from us. In fact he invites us all over to his home after dinner where he promises to “put a few musicians together up on the roof” after dinner. Typical African hospitality.
We travel over in a couple of vans, it’s around 11. He lives in a rather modest, modern multistory home filled with African art. Baaba is there to meet us outside. He was very happy to see Bono, in particular, as they had recently played a show together in London. Up we went to the roof. Pillows and rugs and candles were strewn all over the floor, the African sky was bright with stars, and we settled in to what became an amazing impromptu show. Players moved in and out. There was a huge kora, a 26 string instrument, a ngoni, a small 3 string guitar-contraption, and some African drums and guitars. It was a perfect introduction to Africa for my fellow travelers and a perfect antidote for jet lag. The yawning stopped, time was forgotten, the vibe was perfect. No one would have wanted to be anywhere else. The music gradually took off and built …..it was hard to tell when it actually started….first some tuning, then some casual vocals by a woman who was sitting, then another woman came out from the shadows. They were singing an old Fulani song about love and longing. Ten minutes later, from the other side of the roof, Baaba Maal, who had been sitting and talking to us, stood up and suddenly began to answer the women, in a call and response mode. Pretty startling., like an opera almost.. Baaba then gave a very poetic welcome to us all, to the good work of ONE, and reminded us of the responsibility of artists and activists to hold leaders to account and remind them of what justice is really about.
A wonderful start to our trip. It was hard to believe we had only been on the ground for a few hours. In that short time Africa had moved us in the most perfect way.
ONE’s board, along with a few staff and advisers, are on a ten-day listening and learning trip through Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya. Below, ONE’s Global Policy Director Erin Thornton provides their first post from the ground.
In Senegal, they define youth as anyone up to age 40 (which I really like). On the first day of our trip, we decided to look at what economic opportunities are available for youth in Senegal. Unfortunately, the news wasn’t good. Young people face incredible unemployment rates in Senegal. Up to 50% of youth do not have formal jobs and so must rely on the informal sector to earn resources for their families. On a trip where we’re focusing on economic growth, this challenge of job creation is of special importance.
We met with a group of young street vendors to discuss their day-to-day legal, financial and even social challenges; and to consider what is needed to enhance their opportunities to generate income and to improve the lives of their families.
In the bustling Sandaga market, where many people in Dakar do their daily shopping, there is a clear distinction between those that own shops, those that have table stalls ‘les tabliers’, and those that hawk their wares on foot ‘les ambulants’. The latter two often experience harassment and are unable to access credit to expand their business due to a lack of collateral – such as a land title or even enough inventory.
Many of these traders are members of one of the three main associations: SYMAD (Synergie des Marchands dits “Ambulants” pour le Développement), FAMAT (Federation des Associations des Marchands de Tabliers de la region Dakar) and GNJMD (Groupement National des Jeunes Marchands de Dakar). These associations advocate for their members’ interests at local and national political levels, and are currently engaged in a battle to protect traders from a government roadside clearance program. In addition to advocacy, they operate as a social security service for members who incur medical bills, set up apprenticeships for the unemployed youth, hold literacy classes and provide skills training.
The question of financing was especially compelling to many of the entrepreneurs we met. They clearly have the drive to build their businesses but the resources-both in terms of business skills and advice and, of course, financial assistance are very limited. One organization working to address this gap is BIRIMA. BIRIMA was founded by Youssou N’Dour in 2007 to provide small loans to young people with business ideas. N’Dour came up with the idea when a young man asked him for CFA60,000 (~$120USD) to buy and sell shoes. After the man returned the money N’Dour realized he could help young people get around the problem of access to credit with small loans that could allow them to set up profitable businesses. BIRIMA has now lent CFA200M (~$400,000USD) to 1,182 individuals.
After hearing presentations from each of the four organizations, we broke into smaller groups to meet some of the traders, hear their stories, their aspirations and their concerns. These are hard working and inspiring folks who have the will to improve their lives-they just need the opportunities. It served as a strong reminder for all of us on the first day of this listening and learning trip-that perhaps the most important element to driving development is creating a sense of opportunity.
This evening I’ll be joining members of ONE’s board, along with a few staff and advisers, on a flight to Africa to begin a ten day journey of listening and learning. We approach this trip with humility, eager to hear from a range of Africans and eager to apply their advice to our work. We do this so we can better serve and support those living in extreme poverty as they seek a better life.
To help set the stage for our journey, a couple of us attended a lecture today in New York by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, ONE’s International Patron and one of the most important voices in the world today. As usual, we were inspired by his compassion and provoked by his wisdom (we are also very grateful for the blessing he bestowed as we begin this journey). Archbishop Tutu reminded us of the great African concept of “Ubuntu”, which speaks to oneness of all humanity. As he described this concept not long ago:
“One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.”
This powerful African idea will guide us on our journey and will continue to shape our everyday work.
We embark on this trip at a critical moment in Africa’s development, a time of dramatic changes in thinking and citizen action across the diverse countries on the continent. It is also a vibrant time of new and innovative thinking about development assistance and economic development more broadly. ONE is in the middle of these intellectual currents.
When ONE began its work, there was a critical need to prove that investments in development could deliver results. Fortunately, global efforts to respond to the AIDS crisis and the scourge of malaria, as well as efforts to put children in school, have resulted in remarkable successes. During this period, knowledge and evidence related to the programs we’ve worked to support have grown, as has ONE as an organization. We always strive to know better what works and what doesn’t, and we want to hear ideas for how to continue to improve our work and further our mission to effectively combat extreme poverty and preventable disease.
The backdrop for our visit is dynamic; 2010 is a pivotal year that will put Africa – as the host of the World Cup – on the global stage, with an opportunity to reintroduce the continent to viewers around the world. At the same time, after a decade of robust economic growth, Africa has been hit hard by the global economic downturn. As the global economy continues to shift, a still heavier emphasis will be placed on emerging economies and their role in Africa’s development.
Throughout the trip, we will be guided by African leaders and leading thinkers including Dr. Mo Ibrahim, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, KY Amoako, Youssou N’Dour, John Githongo and Donald Kaberuka. With their help, we will explore key questions on the trip, including:
After a decade of rapidly increasing investment in social sector programs, what lessons have been learned about the most effective way to use these programs to advance development?
Are there things ONE can do to support improved governance in Africa and promote a vibrant civil society and citizen-led accountability efforts?
What can development programs do to promote private sector progress and increased investment in Africa? What, if anything, can ONE do to help?
We will seek especially to hear the perspectives of those outside the government: civil society, the private sector, students, and cultural and artistic communities. We approach this trip with genuinely open minds, eager to hear from Africans about what they seek and what they think our role should be.
We look forward to sharing observations, insights, and lessons learned along the way as we listen during these next ten days. We will use this blog to share observations, insights, and lessons learned along the way – both directly from the those we meet along the way and from those of us on the trip. Stay tuned.
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