Participants discussed Kenya Vision 2030, Kenya’s long-term economic, political and social development blueprint to create a more competitive and prosperous nation by 2030. African business leaders discussed the private sector’s role in shaping policy and investment opportunities and explored Kenya’s potential growth in both a regional and global context.

Featured guest Dr. Ricardo Hausmann presented CID’s Atlas of Economic Complexity: Mapping the Path to Prosperity, which measures the diversity of productive knowledge of 128 countries and forecasts how fast countries will grow. The CID is currently engaging with leaders in government and multilateral institutions to analyze indicators for Kenya’s economic expansion and strategies to overcome barriers to optimal growth. Dr. Hausmann will follow up with Frontier 100 CEOs to further discuss the private sector’s role in shaping Kenyan policy.

General Powell, Mr. Ndiaye, and Secretary Albright at the IGD Leadership Council meeting in December, 2011

Papa Madiaw Ndiaye is the Founding Partner and CEO of Advanced Finance & Investment Group LLC (AFIG), a private equity fund management company founded in 2005 in Dakar, Sengal. AFIG invests in successful, home-grown African companies, providing the capital they need to expand as well as additional services such as financial advising and debt capital raising. Mr. Ndiaye believes that job creation is “the most tried and tested route out of poverty,” and invests strategically in sectors such as agribusiness, energy, infrastructure, light manufacturing and financial services that have a high demonstrated impact on poverty reduction.

Mr. Ndiaye advocates for increased investment in the continent, predicting that “Africa will surprise the world with some of the biggest multinational companies by the end of this century.” He challenges investors and business executives to visit the continent to correct misperceptions and see the diverse investment opportunities for themselves. He expects that in the next few years Africa will emerge as a global investment destination and companies that have invested early will be well rewarded.

Previously, Mr. Ndiaye served as Managing Director at Emerging Markets Partnership where he was one of three partners to set up the $407 million AIG African Infrastructure Fund in 2000, the largest pan-African fund to date at the time. The same year, he was named both Special Advisor for Economic and Financial Affairs to the President of the Republic of Senegal and Chairman of the Senegalese Presidential Economic & Financial Advisory Council. In 2004, Mr. Ndiaye was selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum of Davos.

Mr. Ndiaye has been a key member of IGD’s Frontier 100 since 2009 and recently participated in the Frontier 100 Forum in New York in October, 2011. He attended IGD’s annual Leadership Council meeting in December, 2011 in Washington, D.C.

The marketplace for information and communications technology (ICT) companies has evolved significantly in recent years due to infrastructure improvements and technological advancements. Now Brian Herlihy and fellow Frontier 100 member Funke Opeke, CEO of Main One Cable Company, have transformed the internet in Africa through a partnership linking the two companies’ fiber optic cable networks across Africa.

SEACOM and Main One, based in Mauritius and Nigeria respectively, provide wholesale broadband products and services via fiber optic cables linking Africa to Europe and South Asian networks. In 2011, they agreed to interconnect their undersea cables, thus encircling Africa and providing a unified platform for the delivery of broadband services to the entire continent, which keeping prices low and avoiding duplication of effort. The partnership won “Best Pan African Initiative” at the AfricaCom Awards in November 2011.

SEACOM and Main One’s collaboration is just one example of how partnerships are transforming African markets. IGD & Dalberg’s latest report, Business-to-Business Partnerships, Recommendations for Expansion Across Africa, gives examples of how partnerships are becoming increasingly important for companies operating across a range of sectors. For businesses operating in Africa’s dynamic frontier markets, partnerships are an essential tool.

Read more on SEACOM and Main One Cable Company’s partnership.

Read the Business-to-Business Partnerships executive summary and report.

Companies heard from Ghana’s Millennium Development Authority and Ministry of Energy about the types of private sector participation Ghana was most interested in attracting. More importantly, companies were able to have constructive individual conversations with the Government of Ghana, the Millennium Development Authority and MCC about the most significant steps they could take to attract private capital to leverage the compact so it can more adequately address the $700 million financing gap related to Ghana’s transmission needs. Ghana and MCC learned from a number of potential investors active in Africa that predictability and security of the fuel supply for prospective investors was a key barrier to investment in the sector, and that a number of companies are already interested in taking the risk of investing, despite some regulatory challenges, if the gas could be guaranteed. Putting aside the question of whether the compact ultimately addresses this obstacle directly, the event spurred a conversation between potential investors, the Ghanaian government and MCC that looks like it will continue and has provided an incentive for the parties to work together to improve the investment climate for power going forward.

The event was successful from a broader development policy perspective as well:

• • Companies were given the opportunity to play a role at an early, pivotal stage of the compact development process. Ghana is in the midst of forming its project concept, and having the opportunity to learn from potential investors before projects are chosen where their business interests and the government’s development needs might overlap provides the wherewithal for Ghana and the MCC, for the first time, to design a compact that can truly unlock potential investment and private capital.
• • Companies provided meaningful feedback to Ghana on the most important barriers to investment in the power sector. To design a compact that spurs investment and raises living standards, it is essential to hear directly from companies willing to invest what the most significant barriers are. The event provided the opportunity for a number of companies to send a clear, strong signal about the tangible steps Ghana could take to attract real, not hypothetical, investors. Traditionally, MCC has relied solely on a macroeconomic analysis as a basis for project choices, which, as the sole driver, limited the identification of commercially viable opportunities for collaboration.
• • Innovative solutions to development problems are now part of the compact equation. Several innovative solutions to improving the reliability of supply were presented by companies, particularly in the renewables sector. These alternatives could provide bridge solutions and bring enough redundancy to provide stability to the grid, in a very short time period.

Next steps include a number of follow-on meetings between companies attending the event, MCC and the Ghanaian government to explore investment opportunities. Once Ghana completes the concept paper for its project proposal this spring, IGD looks forward to helping MCC make the most of the opportunities presented with interested companies, and following up this excellent first step with a process that genuinely integrates the innovation, capacity building, capital and expertise the private sector can bring to Ghana’s most important development problems.

The event featured distinguished guests Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Co-Chair of the IGD Leadership Council and Chair of Partners for a New Beginning; Walter Isaacson, President & CEO of the Aspen Institute; and Jennifer Potter, President & CEO of IGD. Administrator Henrietta Holsman Fore, IGD Leadership Council member and PNB-NAPEO Co-Chair moderated the discussion. Key themes included the need for expanding regional trade, increasing regional investment opportunities and improving workforce education and training. The conversations that night and during the following days of PNB-NAPEO’s 2^nd annual U.S. – Maghreb Entrepreneurship conference gave IGD a number of new potential partnerships and valuable contacts, which will enhance our efforts to increase poverty-reducing investment in the Maghreb countries and on the Africa continent as a whole.