In a bid to attract more direct foreign investment into Africa, the Nepad Business Foundation (NBF) has committed itself to two ”covenants” — anti-corruption and corporate governance.
”All too often we are told that Africa is, in fact, a haven for those who mean to be corrupt. We have argued before that Africa may be corrupt, but it is to a degree also corrupted, because for a corruptee to thrive there must be a corruptor, and a corruptor is one who is able,” said NBF chairperson Reuel Khoza.
Khoza was addressing the World Economic Forum meeting in Cape Town on Wednesday on business’ approach to dealing with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).
He said a covenant has been implemented to fight corruption in Africa, based on similar initiatives in the Commonwealth and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
”We developed one that we believe is germane and pertinent to the African condition, and we are committed to fighting corruption wherever we come across it.”
The second covenant deals with corporate governance. It is intended to reassure foreign investors interested in regulatory and legislative frameworks and ”codes of behaviour”.
Khoza said the covenant advocates corporate responsibility and adherence to international audit and accounting standards.
The NBF has also set up about 15 sector working groups in areas such as finance, information and communication technology, agriculture, infrastructure and education.
The foundation is developing leadership skills and capacity, and hopes to start a project with tertiary education institutions, looking at leadership in practice.
”This would expose them [participants] to the theoretical understanding to what the challenges are, and we would be working very, very closely with the likes of the World Bank [and] the IMF [International Monetary Fund].”
Providing an international investor’s perspective, co-panellist Olivier Suinat of Hewlett Packard said his company does not subscribe to ”Afro-pessimism”.
Suinat said there is ”very strong” growth in the information and communication technology sector in Africa, in the region of 20% to 30%, which is on par with other emerging markets such as Russia and India.
”So, there is absolutely no pessimism from an international investor perspective.”
Suinat said Nepad is viewed as a catalyst to provide a stable and peaceful environment in which investors can operate.
He said an important part of rebuilding the infrastructure of the continent is focusing on education, and ensuring that the youth are the ”backbone” of the economy in years to come.
Consequently, his company is investing in education, and is leading a consortium that will from Wednesday establish pilot projects across several African countries, targeting rural schools.
Suinat said he is constantly asked if he is an optimist or pessimist in relation to Nepad, and answered he is a ”realist”.
”I think we need to be realist and realistic. When you look at the time it took for other political organisations or economic union — and we just can look north in Europe — it took 50 years and there is still so much to do.” — Sapa