Africabeat

Laphto (Addis Ababa)

Shawel Hailu stands in front of Laphto, a new multi-purpose entertainment center which will feature luxury apartments, an art gallery, bowling alley, pool hall, arcade, night club, cafe, fusion restaurant, shopping, swimming pool, health club, running track, movie theatre (for indy/art house films), VIP center, rentable shopping/office space, Wifi hotspots, a Montessori school and, eventually, a world-class pediatrics hospital. He's part of the wave of returned Diaspora Ethiopians driving the current building boom.

His materials?  Sourced from China, of course, via Guangzhou.  The foreman on his work site are also Chinese.

Dubai Invests in Rwanda

Last week, Dubai World, Dubai's investment holding company, announced it will invest $230 million in Rwanda's tourism industry. Dubai World plans to build a five-star tented park at the base of the country's famed gorilla preserve at Volcanoes National Park, an airstrip and hotel at Akagera Park, and a tea estate adjacent to a proposed four-star hotel at Nyungwe forest. 

The Rwanda Investments and Export Promotion Agency (RIEPA) is aggressively courting ICT and tourism investments as part Vision 2020, an ambitious plan to transform Rwanda into a middle-income country by the year 2020. 

When I was in Kigali last summer, I spoke to some officers at RIEPA about Vision 2020, and they showed me these really beautiful sketches of luxury cabins, best described as castles of glass, perched over a lake.  I believe they had commissioned an American architecture firm to do the drawings.  "All we need is an investor," they said.  It was one of the many moments during my three weeks in Rwanda where I thought, "Damn, I can't help but admire the sheer audacity of this government's dreams."

Looks like audacity is paying off.

Here's some info on the Dubai World investment in French and English.

See also: Notes on Rwanda, Democracy & Authoritarianism

Chinos en África: por una oportunidad

Matías Zibell from BBC Mundo contacted me about doing another interview about Chinese in Africa, this time in Spanish!  Apparently I wrote on my website that I speak Spanish, which is technically true in the way it's technically true that I am Egyptian.

Moral of the story: be careful what you write on your resume!

Fortunately, BBC decided not to do an on-air interview, but rather a news article where Zibell lovingly translated the answers to his questions, which I gave in English, into Spanish.

It's called "Chinos en África: por una oportunidad."

Zibell was really fascinated by what I was saying about ordinary Chinese in Africa, the working class who come to Africa seeking their fortunes which I think is an aspect of the "China in Africa" story that is underreported.

My Spanish is good enough for passive translation, so I will translate the article when I get a chance.

Back to China, From Africa

But right now, I'm in Doha and they've just announced my flight to Beijing is boarding.  Almost home! 

I spent 3 and a half months in Africa, and as expected, it changed my life.  So much to say.  Fortunately, I'll now have an internet connection and the time to write!

I'd also like to say thank you so much to all the new readers that came to Africabeat the last few months.  I've learned so much from your comments and really look forward to continuing the discussion.

A word on poverty alleviation v. wealth creation in Africa

Just to reiterate: I do not advocate ending all aid to Africa.  That's silly.  I'm advocating a paradigm shift in terms of how we think about aid, its purpose, and Africa's possibilities.

From a banker who works in Mozambique:

"In one board meeting for the bank we discussed the vision/mission of the bank. (The NGO side creeping into the bank.) One member of the board was the CD of a large American NGO which has been in Mozambique for years. Folks said 'alleviate poverty' or 'eliminate poverty' and such.

I suggested, 'what about making our clients wealthy?' The reaction was immediate - no. That was not what we do. It was very interesting.

In the end, we thankfully dissuaded them of using the poverty word so that we wouldn't have to tell our clients - in our own mission statement - that they were poor.

Interesting article."

How to invest in Africa

In response to Africans to Bono: 'For God's Sake Please Stop!' I received several emails asking about how to invest in Africa.  I'm a writer and a wannabe political scientist, which doesn't exactly qualify me to provide an answer.

So here is what I propose.  Let's discuss here the following questions (and feel free to add your own):

• Why are so many reticent to invest in Africa?
• Where does the perception of the potential risks (corruption, embezzlement, etc.) reflect or diverge from the reality?
• What are the best industries or countries to invest in?  Lowest risk?  Highest return?
• Help!  I'm have a little bit of money and I want to invest in Africa.  What do I do, how do I get started?  Offer your own investment success stories and advice to first-time investors
• Some probably don't have the capital or interest to invest directly, but there are organizations that offer grants or microloans to small businesses in Africa.  What are some examples of these?
• At the conference there were a few attendees who are starting private equity funds in Africa.  For which market?  What is the status of initiatives?