The increasingly positive case for investing in Africa

global

There is increased interest in Africa as a market in which to invest, as the wider economic picture looks more encouraging and resistance to foreign investment wanes

When South African mobile telecoms provider MTN paid $285m in 2000 for a licence to operate GSM services in Nigeria, many people said it was crazy. It was a typical reaction to investment propositions on the world's second-largest continent. But four years on, those critics are silent. In the year to March 2004, the company increased subscriber numbers to 1.96 million, despite not issuing SIM cards for 20 weeks to allow the network to catch up with what MTN chief executive Phuthuma Nkleko described as "overwhelming demand". And it is making money, generating $391m in after-tax profits over...