World Geostrategic Insights interviews Ivo Arrey Mbongaya on Africa’s prospects for growth and sustainable economic and social development, the potential of African entrepreneurship, and the opportunities for foreign investors.
Ivo Arrey Mbongaya is director of the African Centre for Community and Development, based in Cameroon. He is an environmental activist entrepreneur with a holistic approach to self-reliance and economic well-being in Cameroon and Africa, as well as a radio and television producer/host. He has extensive experience working in various sectors, including agriculture, food, environment, culture, education, communication, civil society and hospitality industries. He also has an academic and professional background in project planning and management, law, political science, and communication, with over a thousand multimedia publications. In addition Ivo Arrey Mbongaya is a sustainable development consultant, Multidisciplinary Researcher, Multidisciplinary Artist, a Poet and Painter. He is also an ILO Certified Start and “Improve Your Business Trainer”.
Q1 – Geopolitics in Africa is characterized by a multitude of regional and international challenges, border conflicts, ethnic and political rivalries, and foreign interference. Economically, despite significant progress in many countries, Africa still faces serious development challenges, poor infrastructure and persistent poverty. Meanwhile, the political landscape is often shaped by instability, social tensions, protest movements and armed groups insurgencies. Yet, at the same time, Africa is a continent of immense potential and unparalleled opportunity, with an abundance of strategic resources, favorable demographics, and flourishing diversified cultures. So Africa stands at a crossroads, simultaneously facing challenges and opportunities.What is your opinion? How do you see Africa’s prospects for economic growth and development? How should Africa position itself in international relations? Will Africa become an important player in global geopolitics, as some analysts predict? How do you see Africa’s future?
A1 -Ivo Arrey Mbongaya – Africa is a very unique case in the 21st century. It is a multifaceted dimension that can actually be regarded in many ways or to be simplistic as having a huge potential for growth or for volatility. Despite this it is very clear that the positives of Africa’s potential far outweigh her negatives. Issues faced by Africa include poverty, climate change and incidences, instability, vertical and horizontal inequalities, technological and infrastructural gaps, poor access to energy, hygiene and sanitation gaps to biodegradation which is in many ways influenced by anthropogenic factors.
As early as 1996 the IPCC warned of the consequences of climate change on low lying coastal areas in Africa and other developing nations or even developed countries. Today recent data suggest in a few years to come Africa will spend up to US 50 billion dollars annually on combating climate change and loss to property especially in coastal areas. It is expected that climate change will cost the region up to 712 billion US dollars by 2030 in a global context of where climate change is affecting 100 million people living in chronic poverty. Of this number the majority are found in Africa.
In 2019, 19,600 incidents of armed conflicts were reported in the continent which arguably paints a picture of risks and volatility in the area of doing business in the continent. This is further compounded by recent coups and a new wave nationalism or pseudo-militaristic nationalism. seen in recent military coups across the continent. Indeed from August 2020 to now, Africa witnessed 8 coups and these interventions have significant impact on Africa’s strategic growth or geopolitics as countries involved include Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, Sudan, Niger and Gabon. This is serious in a context where the fallouts of the Libyan invasion and disintegration have not been fully dealt with coupled with rising desertification in the Sahel, the rise of Islamic and other extremism as well as massive climate and conflicts induced migrations within the continent and to Europe and beyond.
It is no news that many thousands of African youths are dying in the attempt to reach Europe and the West by crossing the Sahara or the Mediterranean hence worsening the spectrum of human trafficking globally.
Despite these challenges, Africa is the greatest hope of a stagnant global economy exhausted from the rise of militaristic competitions from somewhat established international state systems like the United States, United Kingdom and the Western European countries/the EU and emergent powers like Iran, Turkey, Brazil, India, China, South Africa and Russia. It is the light at the end of a tunnel where many analysts see the security council of the United Nations as fragmented and the General Assembly as weak. Justifications of these assertions are arguably founded in the incapacity of these bodies to act in a decisive and positive way in resolving the conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, DR Congo, Sudan, Cameroon etcetera to the contemporary situation between Israel, Palestine, Iran and her proxies as well as Yemen. There are many reasons why Africa must be seen as the future power house and the hope of the global political economy.
Firstly, many African countries are practicing a doctrine of non-alignment in terms of their foreign policies. They can thus be just brokers in peace and other conflicts or negotiations between state blocks or countries or even business entities. This is based on a rebuttable presumption that the United Nations and other bodies regulating international trade and business will have to be reformed to give Africa a stronger role in their decision making processes. This consideration is vital in keeping these institutions relevant to a changing global geopolitics in which increasingly Africa wants to lend a more authoritative voice in shaping diverse global policies which affect her as well as to manage her natural resources for the benefits of her peoples. In this dimension of thinking the notion that Africa is a poor continent is being shattered into oblivion and incidentally shaping the literature of nationalist movements or even coup leaders as has been the case in Niger, Burkina Faso or in Mali.
Indeed Africa is not poor. The world arguably depends on Africa which has as of today over 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves. The continent can also boast 12 percent of the world’s oil reserves, 8 percent of global gas reserves, 40 percent of global gold reserves and up to 90 percent of its chromium and platinum. DR Congo alone has mineral reserves estimated at over US dollars 30 trillion as well as hydropower and water reserves valued at over US 40 trillion dollars.
According to a recent publication by the World Bank, six African countries feature in the highest growing economies in the world in 2024. They include Rwanda, DR Congo, Niger, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Ethiopia. Niger is a good pointer as it is expected to have a 12.8 percent growth, Senegal 8.8 percent, Rwanda 7.5, DR Congo 6.5 percent and Ethiopia 6.4 percent. Other significant growth is expected in countries like Benin (6 percent), Uganda (6 percent), Guinea (5.8 percent), Guinea Bissau (5.6 percent), Tanzania (5.5 percent) and Liberia (5.4percent). Mali is constructing an oil refinery and gold processing plant and may be in these prestigious groups if not deterred by internal or external factors or players.
Apart from these pointers for growth it is worth mentioning that Africa has other resources that the global economy can leverage or that they do in fact depend on. It has the second biggest rainforests in the Congo Basin after Brazil’s Amazon. This is home to one of the richest biodiversity and can be the future hub for equitable pro-poor regenerative projects or can actually be the place global carbon emissions can be trapped. This of course works with the truism that Africa cannot allow itself not to industrialize or to stay in poverty if the world cannot afford to compensate her for keeping global temperatures down. This is even more so, if one looks at Africa’s demographics which is an asset but can arguably be also an acidified asset. How? Africa’s population which is now about 1.4 billion people is growing in many areas at 2.6 percent annually. This population based on the United Nations and other scholarly research will double by midcentury. At this critical hour in 2050, Sub-Saharan Africa alone will have a youthful population of over 500 million who need jobs, access to infrastructure, energy, health care etcetera.
These youthful populations will also be one of the fuels in the engines of growth as they will offer cheap, unskilled and skilled labor to many industries hence sustaining the economic growth and wellbeing intimated to the close of the century. Worth mentioning that without access to assets intimated like infrastructures, jobs, technologies, food, technologies etcetera there will be a strong propensity for chaos, poverty, migrations, conflicts and failure in achieving African geo-strategic goals.
Other positive elements that will shape positive outcomes for Africa and in the future include bamboo. Recent studies say Africa is home to over 14 million hectares of untapped bamboo. Bamboo is one of the fastest growing species and has been used in the making of over 2000 products worldwide including building poles, laminates, flooring, clothes, briquettes, bikes, furniture, toys etcetera. Africa is also home to over 60 percent of the world’s remaining arable land hence with the right agricultural investments , it can be the future bread basket for the world. It will also be able to feed itself from better strategic investments using her rich soils as well as from the leveraging of the Continental Free Trade Area which is bound to increase intra-trade, reduce suspicions between countries while facilitating better movements of people, goods and services. Kenya and Rwanda are leading here with their policies towards no visas for Africans into their countries.
More so, with actors like China, Brazil, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Russia etc vying for more influence in the continent , Africa stands to gain from competition over her resources as it can now fashion alliances and relationships with other countries based on her strategic interests. It is thus incumbent on these players both new and old in Africa to better the delivery and branding of Africa or their packages for trade and development or they may be swept by a mature storm that has been in the making for a long while.
So Africa’s future despite some pertinent challenges is bright. It is bright and should be approached in holistic models that put people, environment and natural resources first while ensuring that there is equitable sharing of benefits and opportunities and reforms within the governance structures regionally, nationally and within international state and trade systems. Africa is rich and not poor and so cannot be induced based on her resources and potentials to remain poor and stagnant any longer.
Africa has no option but to grow. Her population will double by 2050 and she still has several millions without access to water supply and over 600 million people who do not have access to basic electricity. She still needs more investments in transportation and also vehicles to create jobs for her ballooning youthful populations. Even with this she is sure to grow as she can boast of strategic minerals and other assets as well as a 400 million middle class that is earmarked to double by 2050. So if you invest in Africa, there will be users of your products or goods. That is by my estimation what growth is all about hence Africa has all it takes to grow her economy and her geostrategic interests in the future.
Q2 – Sustainable development is a holistic approach to growth that balances economic, social and environmental considerations to meet the needs of the present without compromising the capabilities of the future. In recent years, this concept has gained prominence around the world, with a growing realization that economic growth and environmental protection must go hand in hand. What is the current state and outlook in Africa for a development path that balances profitability and environmental and social sustainability?
A2 – Ivo Arrey Mbongaya -While holistic approaches which put social , environmental and economic considerations are considered a paradigm shift in terms of global development management, in Africa these models have existed in the cosmic logics of communities perhaps without the thrust of modern technologies, for thousands of years. So as a relation to contemporary devices they may be new but in Africa they exist (See Charter of Kurukan Fuga) and what needs to be done is triangulating data from different sources in order to design trajectories and policies that will put people, social and environmental considerations in operations of businesses or governments or regional policies.
Despite this paradigm shift globally and the notion that sustainability models exist in Africa, there are huge gaps as to where the continent should be. Mining is considered to be responsible for 4 to 7 percent pollution from greenhouse gasses (GHG) globally. In Africa where it is unregulated and steeped in corrupt practices, the emissions and the pollutants from mining are considered to be getting direr.
Mining in Africa is destroying indigenous livelihoods, polluting groundwater and leading to biodegradation and biodiversity loss. It is also leading to social tensions, rivalries and conflicts within countries and between countries. Conflicts between Rwanda and DR Congo for instance have been linked to the presence of military groups or rebels in Eastern Congo who are illegally exploiting natural resources for regional and global players. They are allegedly also using children in copper, gold and cobalt mines in the DR Congo, Central African Republic and across Africa. Of the 255,000 people working in the mining sector in the DR Congo, a whopping 40,000 are children without access to education or health care. This is a dramatic irony as global tech giants, jewelry companies, construction companies and even ordinary people in other parts of the globe are benefitting from goods made from mines where children are working in sometimes gruesome conditions across Africa. Perhaps not knowingly.
A recent report links mining in West Africa to 577 km square depletion of forests and the loss of habitats to species like elephants, giraffes as well as economic trees and grasses. Loss of habitats for species like elephants and giraffes means downgrading of environments or places for ecotourism or revenue generation from ecotourism or restorative projects. Loss of economic flora means more hardship for communities that use them as food and medicine across Africa. Apart from mining, child labour rates in Africa are high it must be said. The rate of child labour in Burkina Faso is 50.3 percent, Somalia (43.3 percent) and Ethiopia 40.5 percent just to mention these few countries.
Therefore both local and foreign companies must work hard to fight child abuse and environmental degradation. It is indeed needed as recent studies say there are about 220 Australian mining companies operating in Africa for instance. There are also 789 mining companies operating in South Africa, 300 registered small mining groups in Ghana while in DR Congo accounting for 70 percent of global cobalt production, Chinese companies own 15 of the 19 cobalt mines in the country. In Cameroon the extractive sector made payments in 2021 to the tune of CFA 776 billion. It is expected that there will be more growth in this sector in Cameroon and in neighboring countries in the coming decades.
Other areas of concern are the timber exploitation sector and its impact on forest biodiversity. Statistics show that 5 million hectares of tropical forest land is lost annually in Africa. Land degradation is estimated at 230 million hectares annually in Africa. This is unacceptable as Africa is home to 9 of the 36 global hotspots with at least 1500 endemic plant species and 70 percent of their primary native habitat/vegetation still intact.
Despite these there are many interventions by conservation programs and local governments across Africa in general and in areas like the Congo Basin, Dry land Forested Areas as well as in marine and mountainous ecosystems that local governments and civil society organizations are working to restore and regenerate ecosystems. Their work is hampered by underfinancing, bureaucracy, corporate interests, cronyism to poor data on the needs of local peoples as well as situational intelligence on the degree of biodiversity loss or biodegradation. Worth noting that climate finance for Africa is far below the needs of the region. There is an estimated annual financing gap of US 99.9 to 127.2 billion dollars between 2020 and 2030. This is further compounded by the fact that there is annually a US 100 billion financing gap in infrastructural development in the continent.
Therefore there is knowledge that profitability, environment and social considerations should be put in focus for better businesses, more wellbeing in Africa and the globe. The reality is that there is a huge need to put theories into practice or to engineer a veritable paradigm shift in Africa and even across the globe. Corporate Social Responsibilities exist for many companies and eco-friendly certifications (ESG) too, it is high time there is also a paradigm movement from paperwork to hands on deck. This will enable a global and regional enabling environment where needs are carefully analyzed to design sustainable policies for people and countries in the long run. It will need financing, research and political/economic wills both from stakeholders within and outside Africa.
Q3 – The road to success for businesses in Africa is often paved with unique challenges, including inadequate infrastructure, political instability, regulatory complexities and limited access to capital. What is your view? How can the potential of African entrepreneurship be fostered? In which African countries are there the most favorable conditions for business development and profitability? What advice would you like to give to potential foreign investors interested in the African market?
A3 – Ivo Arrey Mbongaya – Firstly African entrepreneurship should be leveraged by all interested in doing business in the continent. It is based on informed data and experiences. It can be the driver for innovative startups and projects or even for growth as it is holistic and based on situational intelligence on Africa and her needs or her people and their aspirations. To foster African entrepreneurship will mean paying for entrepreneurship or consulting with entrepreneurs or using them in design and implementation of projects and businesses.
Contemporary business and development projects are generally top down and sometimes exploitative in that they seek to get ideas from entrepreneurs without paying for them or without using the entrepreneurs in the implementation of the businesses. This is leading to business and project failures as you cannot tap all water from a spring by carrying a few bowls of water from its being or essence.
Entrepreneurship I think is the basis of business development or sustainability and entrepreneurs have gotten their skills from trying many things and polishing the things they have tried in order to be defenders or consultants in these things. If you want to invest in agriculture for instance you need someone who has ideas, knowledge and experience in farming or marketing farm products rather than just a good written project on agriculture. So approaches must be flexible and to the point.
Analysts think procedures for contemporary pitching for businesses are too time consuming and bureaucratic and erasing possibilities for collaboration between entrepreneurs and potential investors. Also Africa is a ‘new market’ in a way and approaching Africa wholly with blue prints is arguably restrictive especially with projects that seek to integrate a cultural, environmental or social component in their deliveries.
As intimated earlier many African countries are among the highest growing economies in the world in 2024. They have common and specific potentials for growth. Many have resources that the world needs and others have the soils, demographics, climate, location or human capital for socioeconomic development. In a way the degree of risks in doing business associated with Africa will have to be revisited as many countries offer the right enabling environments for businesses. The perspective of high risks has also been linked to stakeholders influencing lenders of money for investments in Africa or even for development aid. So there are many countries that are good for investors. A few include:
Cameroon has fertile soils, diverse mineral resources, a growing middle class and good geographical location between West and Central Africa. Her cultural richness and heritage are also inviting for businesses in restorative projects, infrastructural development, hospitality industry or agriculture despite the fact that she may have to work hard to redress socio political crises in the country. DR Congo offers huge opportunities in the extractive and regenerative spheres. It has huge potential for labor just like cultural tourism.
The international community however must end the dire conflict situation in Eastern Congo and the rest of the country where over 60 million people are considered chronically poor. You cannot be rich and poor at the same time and besides this country is bordering 9 other African countries. If it is sick the rest of them catch a cold. Rwanda has promising infrastructural development and relative stability. This must be marched with peace with Burundi and the DR Congo. Senegal has natural tourist attractions, abundant fisheries and a working fiscal policy but it may have to strengthen participatory governance and independence in global international relations in order to ignite her full potential. South Africa is one of the biggest if not the biggest economy in Africa; it has a huge extractive sector but needs to distribute wealth to fight inequalities and threats to social cohesion and growth. It is however seen as a powerful stakeholder increasingly in the BRICS group of nations.
Ethiopia has a great diverse approach to development, a youthful population but issues it must tackle like droughts, desertification and separatist movements in the country. With peace and more foreign investments and more rapprochements to East African and other countries it is definitely somewhere to stake your money in. Nigeria has over 279 Universities and like many areas in Sub-Saharan Africa the population is growing at 2.6 percent annually and her middle class will double in midcentury. There is thus spending power and off-takers in Nigeria and many African countries. Nigeria’s situation is similar to Morocco in the areas of trained and skilled labor or graduates from universities. The country needs to solve her ancient rivalries with neighboring countries like Algeria and Libya and also seek better diplomacy to resolve her separatist movements.
Ghana is promising too. It has a huge extractive sector, cultural and natural heritage and pertinent role in the Economic Community of West African States. It will have to align her geopolitical strategies with the long term strategies of the West African region fractured by coups in Burkina Faso, Guinea –Conakry and Mali. Indeed Liberia with stable political transitions offers a good ground for doing business within the country and region. It should be the hub of foreign businesses in the future if it sustains her democracy.
Uganda and Benin are also rich in historical and cultural assets as they are somewhat stable but in need of government reforms and participatory policies. They also need, like all African countries, access to financing or possible paradigm shift to alternative financing which will include non-traditional partners and technologies like web3 or even block chains. That is if old financial institutions do not see the need to meet up with the growing dynamism in Africa or the need for change in almost every area of socioeconomic life.
Those interested in investing in Africa should simply think out of the box or out of their comfort zones. Engage with the continent and her people and stakeholders. The continent is not poor or did not choose to be poor and even in this exaggerated descriptive there are wells for opportunities with sure return on investments (ROI).
Invest in agriculture. People need food and can consume your products. There are 1.4 billion mouths to eat. Invest in fisheries, people eat fish and there are close to a billion fish eaters in Africa. Transform natural resources as there are off-takers everywhere and a ballooning middle class of 400 million people. Invest in infrastructure as there are huge financing gaps in this sector and there can be innovative devices to engineer Return on Investments.
Invest in energy development, information and communications technologies. The continent has over 600 million phone users connected to the internet and one can literally sell anything if it is well packaged. Recycle and reuse things to reduce waste and also carbon emissions, there are a growing chunk of users in these sectors.
Build industries and the green economy, via regenerative, restorative projects, schools, vocational training centers, green buildings and affordable housing etcetera. There are people in need and capable of accessing these products. Work and pay local entrepreneurs to have projects and businesses that don’t fail in the long run.
Africa is not for free and local entrepreneurs also have to put food on the table. Support human rights and good governance. This creates an enabling environment for justice, peace and for protecting your businesses rather than conflicts that could go out of control. Also encourage media outlets to change the narratives on poverty in Africa or of high risks of doing businesses. This has to be based on informed data rather than theories steeped in biases or lack of information.
Q4 – African art, culture and heritage, what role can they play in the economic growth, tourism and enhancement of Africa’s image in the world?
A4 – Ivo Arrey Mbongaya -African art, culture and heritage are very important in economic growth and in shaping the narrative about Africa. It brings a new light of storytelling to the realities of Africa as well as shrinks barriers between African people and civilizations with different parts of the world. Art, culture and heritage are not only main tools for cultural and touristic diplomacy; they constitute the best way to understand the social dimension of Africa which is relevant in the integration of profitability to the environment in order to arrive at the holistic. Knowing that Africa is home to civilizations and traditions like Oyo, Mali, Ekpe, Cush, Aksum, Songhai, Igbo, Egypt, Benin, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Zulu, Kongo etcetera might help in making investment processes in Africa more participatory and less top down.
Besides, African arts and cultural artifacts are very valuable despite the fact that they are so underutilized globally. They will be a huge asset in Web3 industries in the near future as well. This therefore offers a window of opportunity to collectors, museums, galleries and investors or manufacturing industries or even the media to put them in focus so as to better understanding of Africa, produce diverse new products, access these valuable items for other markets as well as to shrink cultural divides that prevent the smooth processes of doing businesses in Africa and worldwide.
Ivo Arrey Mbongaya – Director of African Centre for Community and Development, Cameroon.
Image Source: UN