[kictanet] International investors choose South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya as top 3 in 2011

Andrea Bohnstedt andrea.bohnstedt at ratio-magazine.com
Mon Jun 27 15:50:34 EAT 2011 

I think there are lots of different dimensions to this (and what follows is
not ICT specific). I have to update country reports every once in a while
and usually have to have some sort of general outlook for investment, too.
Also, I get commissioned by potential investors to look at specific
opportunities and the risks associated with them. Based on that, here a a
couple of thoughts:

   - It all depends: On what sector you're looking at, what your risk
   tolerance is, how sensitive you are about your reputational risk, what your
   experience in this or similar markets is.
   - There's been a rising interest in investing and/or doing business in
   Africa over the past years. Kenya benefits from this, too.
   - In this context, Kenya is, despite its drawbacks, still interesting for
   the following reason: most advanced financial sector, large domestic market,
   relatively well educated work force etc. Rwanda, for example, might be safer
   and easier to navigate (although not necessarily easy - it has its own and
   very different set of challenges), but it has a tiny domestic market and its
   landlocked location means that transport costs to get anything to and from
   global markets are still prohibitive.
   - If you're interested in the entire EAC market, Kenya is still a useful
   base to operate from for the above reasons, because it is a regional
   transport and finance hub, because most people who matter in the rest of the
   EAC will eventually rock up in a Nairobi city hotel.
   - Don't underestimate Kenyan investment in the EAC scenario - this is not
   just about international FDI: Kenya may attract less FDI than the other
   countries (and Uganda's and Tanzania's figures were certainly beefed up by
   the fact that oil and gold prices remained strong, and their extractive
   industries attracted a lot of money). But KQ, Serena, Fina, KCB, Equity,
   Bidco etc are regional firms. Kenyan firms contribute to Rwanda's, Uganda's,
   Burundi's and Tanzania's FDI.
   - I think we'll certainly see a slowdown before the next elections: There
   is uncertainty over whether they will be peaceful or not, and in the run up
   to the elections, it is likely that corruption will increase as all sorts of
   officials, MPs etc look for cash for their campaigns. Also, that renders
   investors more vulnerable if they are in politically sensitive areas: If you
   look back at the port privatisation discussion, it has been argued that this
   is unlikely to make much progress before the elections as it would be too
   easy for MPs to exploit the current resentment against likely job losses.
   This is a sensitive subject at the best of times, but not something you'd
   want to get into a year before the elections when every MPs is desperate for
   PR opportunities.


Also, finally, I think it might be worth bearing in mind the difference
between the status quo and people coming here despite a host of factors -
and what Kenya could be if it sorted out those factors. Sometimes it's a bit
limiting if you benchmark yourself against the weaker cases.

Just a quick list - this is by no means exhaustive nor very systematic.

Adnrea

On 27 June 2011 12:26, Suhayl Esmailjee <suhayl at esmailjee.com> wrote:

> This seems to suggest otherwise for Kenya ....
>
> http://goo.gl/2Kqyv
>
> Regards
>
> SE
>
> On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 8:07 AM, Dorcas Muthoni <dmuthoni at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Very interesting... East Africa is looking good. All but Burundi are
>> included in the top ten. We should get Southern Sudan into EA who are likely
>> to draw quite a number of investors.
>>
>>   On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 9:19 PM, Harry Hare <
>> harry at africanedevelopment.org> wrote:
>>
>>>     Friday, 24 June 2011 11:33 Linda Larbie
>>>
>>>  International investors choose *South Africa*, *Nigeria* and *Kenya* as
>>> the best African countries on the continent for investment in 2011. A survey
>>> conducted by *Africa Business Panel<http://www.africabusinesspanel.com/>
>>> * among 800 business professionals involved with Africa shows that these
>>> 3 countries were earmarked as the continent’s favourites when it comes to
>>> international investment. *Ghana, Angola, Tanzania, Rwanda, Botswana,
>>> Uganda* and *Mozambique* are the runners up and complete the top ten
>>> countries for investment out of 53 economies on the African continent.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.africabusinesscommunities.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=948&catid=1
>>>
>>> ====
>>>
>>> Just a few years ago investor were running away from Kenya, now we are up
>>> there again…that is why I love this country.
>>>
>>> Have a feel good weekend.
>>>
>>> Harry
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> kictanet mailing list
>>> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
>>> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>>>
>>> Unsubscribe or change your options at
>>> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/dmuthoni%40gmail.com
>>>
>>> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
>>> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
>>> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
>>> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>>>
>>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
>>> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
>>> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
>>> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Muthoni
>>
>> My Blog: http://rugongo.blogspot.com/
>> --------------------------------------------
>> Mahatma Gandhi once said:-
>>
>> First they ignore you,
>> Then they laugh at you,
>> Then they fight you,
>> AND THEN YOU WIN!!!
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> kictanet mailing list
>> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
>> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>>
>> Unsubscribe or change your options at
>> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/suhayl%40esmailjee.com
>>
>> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
>> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
>> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
>> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>>
>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
>> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
>> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
>> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> kictanet mailing list
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>
> Unsubscribe or change your options at
> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/andrea.bohnstedt%40ratio-magazine.com
>
> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for
> people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>



-- 
Andrea Bohnstedt <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/andreabohnstedt>
Publisher
+254 720 960 322

www.ratio-magazine.com
Find/post East Africa careers<http://www.ratio-magazine.com/careers/index.php>
Find/post conferences, workshops, trainings, other business
events<http://www.ratio-magazine.com/businessevents/index.php>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20110627/1cf5d1e1/attachment.htm>

More information about the KICTANet mailing list