Africa is Talking Business

June promises to be a good month for Africa, business wise.

The 8th Leon H. Sullivan Summit comes to Tanzania, Arusha (June 2 - 6, 2008). The Leon H. Sullivan Summit is named after the first African-American to sit on the board of a Fortune 500 company - together the world’s political and business leaders, delegates representing national and international civil and multinational organizations, and members of academic institutions in order to focus attention and resources on Africa’s economic and social development.

Starting on June 4, several international decision-makers will participate in the 18th World Economic Forum on Africa; venue is Cape Town South Africa. The conference theme is” Capitalizing on Opportunity”. The meeting will address the challenges that Africa must address if it is to be seen as a reliable and competitive partner in the global economy.

“Africa has been making lots of progress over the past decade. It has been stabilizing its economies, fiscal and macro economic policies and there are new opportunities on the horizon”, Stéphane Oertel, Community Manager, Africa, World Economic Forum explains below:

As regional conflicts decline and several nations become democratized, the sub-Saharan economy has blossomed. This comes with increasing consumer markets, and more multinationals have started seeing the hidden business potentials on the continent.

According to Nigerian media reports, some $12 billion USD has flowed into Nigeria since the liberalization of the telecom. Reported today is a story of a Paris-based firm that is considering investing $20 billion to boost the tourism initiative of the Cross River State.

In Liberia, ArcelorMittal plans to take over an old mining project that was abandoned by a Liberian-Swedish-American company, Lamco, in 1989 during the country’s first civil war. The operation will have to be rebuilt nearly from scratch.

Even the host of Sullivan summit is not left out: “Tanzania is set to witness an influx of several mining investors from Japan following the recent ‘Yokohama Declaration’“. The ‘Yokohama Declaration’ paves way for Japanese mining investors in the country, it was agreed on during last Tokyo International Conference on African Development.