By Godfrey Olukya May 10, 2017
At a Roundtable event in Nairobi, ministers from across Africa have today sat together with investors and the private sector to determine how best to tackle the investment and credit risk hurdles in order to make African risks bankable.
According to African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI), which organized the meeting, the participants said that they see the event as timely because it comes at time of political uncertainties which, according to The World Bank, could lead to higher borrowing costs or cut off capital flows to emerging and frontier market.
‘For African governments part of what is at stake are much needed foreign direct investments and access to affordable financing
necessary to spur development and, specifically, to close the estimated USD900 billion infrastructure gap. Equally, the private
sector stands to lose billions of dollars in lost opportunities if the requirements for a favorable investment environment are not
adequately addressed.” ATI said in a statement.
The half day forum, the 4th Roundtable to focus on Political and Credit Risks in Africa, took place on the sidelines of the African
Trade Insurance Agency’s (ATI) annual general Meetings. The event opened with remarks from the president of Benin Patrice Talon.
Investors acknowledged that they are not immune to political and social developments in emerging regions like Africa. They observed that during the boom years of the last two decades, Africa was experiencing unprecedented GDP growth rates but depressed commodity prices have seen growth in the sub-Saharan Africa region slow to 1.5 percent rate in 2016.
According to World Bank estimates,oil exporters account for most of the slowdown owing to their two-thirds contribution to regional output.
“Africa is in a period of realignment in this new global order but I don’t think anyone should bet against its resilience. We are still
home to some of the fastest growing economies in the world – as of 2017, the World Economic Forum ranks Côte d’Ivoire, Tanzania and Senegal on the list of the top ten fastest growing economies in the world,” noted George Otieno, ATI’s CEO.
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