Business
Come on into Africa. The Water is actually Nice.
By Dennis Matanda
You could say that Vicky McPherson and I are friends. We finally met in Addis Ababa many AGOA-Civil-Society-conference-calls later. She is so much nicer in person – and even pardoned my tardiness when I came horribly late for a post- Addis meeting. Aron Ambia and I met only recently at a Greenberg Traurig event. A Harvard-educated attorney, he was also almost minus Ivy League airs. In fact, the one thing that came across was his huge smile. And so, when we sat down for this conversation – I was at my house in New Jersey, while they were at their corporate office in Washington, DC – things could not have gone better.
We started off directly. I wanted to know what could be done to increase the sheer volume of business between the U.S. and Africa. You could almost
hear Vicky smile, and her response was clinically delivered:
‘One of the major impediments from a U.S. perspective’ Vicky said, ‘is just the hesitation on the part of mid-size companies to get into Africa since the multinationals are obviously already in Africa. The huge U.S. corporations are there – and they are doing well and flourishing.
Here, Vicky hesitated and her response took my earlier question to another level: She suggested that instead, we should be asking how we could expand
that middle market – looking into whether or not it’s even feasible for smaller businesses to play in the African market. The focus, she suggested, ought to be on educating medium sized American companies to take advantage of the opportunities in Africa. This would, in simple terms, expand their horizons and especially demystify Africa for them because they, very clearly, have a negative perception of what it means to do business in Africa; a perception not in line with the reality.
‘There’s a wrong perception in terms of the risk, and also, in terms of the real economic opportunities that exist,’ Vicky continued. ‘These two things are completely not in alignment.’ She went on to mention that there are huge gains to be made in Africa, and that this is overshadowed by the belief that American businesses stand to lose so much more.
At this point, I wanted to know what specific role the both of them could play to facilitate the commercial partnership between the two parts of the
world. After all, here they were – both lawyers – one a Kenyan and the other an American.
Again, Vicky went straight to the heart of things. She said that there were already governmental agencies that could do a much better job for those medium sized enterprises best placed to make a killing in Africa. She then cited the Small Business Administration (SBA) who, I discovered does not necessarily focus on Mom & Pop stores as their core business. In fact, when you think about it, small businesses in the U.S. could actually mean medium sized companies and some start ups. Besides, perusing the SBA guidelines, one will find that to garner the agency’s support, the international or outward focus ought to have an American connection as well.
Essentially, because the SBA is keen on making a return, it seems as though they would even be interested in both those medium sized companies that
want to look outside the U.S. and also those not yet looking outside of the U.S. to expand their own margins. Vicky suggested that one way for the medium sized enterprises to get into Africa would be through agencies like the SBA (and perhaps, the Minority Business Development Agency – MBDA), and
via participating in forums where such companies and agencies are playing. Aron chimed in: ‘Vicky is exactly right. Another way would be attending conferences, reaching out expressly to existing clients and throughout the value chain and opening the doors for additional ones to help them create additional opportunities. For example, those who attend our Doing Business in Africa forums in conjunction with the Corporate Council on Africa are
already interested parties and so, providing an additional forum to talk to one another – to collaborate – is another important piece of that as well.’
