There’s a new scramble for Africa under way in the post-colonial era and that scramble, sparked by outside interests keen on tapping into the continent’s vast mineral resources, is going to last for some time.According to Dr Martyn Davies, managing director of Deloitte’s Emerging Markets and Africa division, unprecedented investor interest in Africa has been nothing short of ground breaking for the continent.He said 320 embassies had been opened across the continent from 2010 to 2016, an outpouring of diplomatic faith and interest that “has never before been seen in one region – ever”.And although there is reason enough to believe that Chinese f lags f lutter above most of the new embassies, Davies identified Turkey and India as leading the vanguard for new ventures into Africa.Taking a deeper look at what propels this interest, Davies ascribed it to the “fear of missing out”, an expression best known as “fomo”.“Geopolitical interest is driven by fomo and it calls for multi-sector collaboration to the fullest extent of possible goals,” he said. Referring to a recent London investors’ summit where Britain outlined its intentions to join the 21st century scramble into Africa, a matter which even prompted Prime Minister Boris Johnston to miss t he World Economic Forum in Davos, Davies characterised this renewed interest in a former colonial stamping ground as “a far more commercially proa c t ive v iew ”.The US too, he said, had nailed its colours to the mast during the US-Africa summit attended by some 1200 delegates in Mozambique last year.It was convened by the Corporate Council for Africa, and oil and gas major Anadarko “virtually the next day announced the single largest commodity investment ever in Africa’s economic history, namely $25-odd billion US dollars”.That investment into liquid natural gas exploration in Cabo Delgado province, which has since been taken over by Total, has on more than one occasion been characterised as the single biggest capital expenditure (capex) resource development on earth.Sounds exaggerated?Then consider that the only other capex project to top it was the international space station.And apart from the US and UK’s stepped-up interest in Africa, there is of course also China.But that merits a story all on its own.
INSERT: The fear of missing out propels interest in investing in Africa.– Dr Martyn Davies