Opinion
Obama trip to Kenya, Ethiopia: Focus on entrepreneurship, investment, trade, and tech
By Jake Bright
As entrepreneurship takes off in countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, the U.S. President Barack Obama will be looking for more ways to boost that growth.
When Obama visits Kenya and Ethiopia this week, his agenda will include many issues, such as regional security and human rights. But a dominant focus of the president and his delegation will be expanding business and enterprise in Africa, as he hosts the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Nairobi, bringing along over 200 U.S. investors.
“A priority of President Obama, and a goal of the Summit, is exporting U.S. expertise in entrepreneurship and innovation abroad,” says U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker.
GES, a U.S. government sponsored forum, aims to foster business leaders in frontier and emerging markets. It also enlists notable Americans as entrepreneurship ambassadors – among them Internet pioneer Steve Case, Shark Tank’s Daymond John, and AirBnB founder Brian Chesky, all of whom will be in Kenya with Pritzker and Obama to mentor young African entrepreneurs on attracting capital, managing risk, and launching new ventures.
These days business, entrepreneurship, and investment are active themes across sub-Saharan Africa. Previously one of the world’s most economically marginalized areas, the region has been connecting rapidly to international markets as it gains credibility with global investors on the hunt for new opportunities.
After a decade of rapid economic growth, a fast rising African consumer class is expected to wield over US$1 trillion in annual spending power by 2020. Foreign aid in Africa is being overshadowed by record increases in foreign direct investment (FDI), up 42 percent between 2008 and 2014, to US$55 billion.
Over the last 2 years, countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria have gained sovereign credit ratings and issued global government bonds now included in the portfolios of funds like PIMCO. And Africa’s stock markets are capitalizing and digitizing, as many of them partner with exchanges such as NASDAQ to adopt the latest trading platforms.
It should also be noted here that sub-Saharan Africa’s trade with China is expected to hit US$385 billion this year.
As Africa’s business landscape improves, U.S. companies have been looking to expand into the continent.
Over the last 2 years, IBM established a US$100 million Africa research facility in Nairobi; Facebook recently opened its first Africa Office, and Starbucks announced its launch into sub-Saharan Africa last week. General Electric (GE), likewise, sees enormous potential there.
