U.S. business in Africa

Amadou Sy, senior fellow and director of the Africa Growth Initiative, addresses both the opportunities and challenges of U.S. economic engagement in Africa as the second U.S.-Africa Business Forum approaches.

“The first accomplishment is to get U.S. businesses and U.S. stakeholders to look at Africa as a business partner. Typically in the U.S., and for very good reasons, Africa has been looked at as an aid recipient, a humanitarian case,” Amadou suggests. “It’s not just everything in Africa. The other side of the coin is we have fast growing economies. We have business opportunities. This is trying to really put Africa on the map.”

“The first forum was about why Africa as a business partner, and the second one will be about how. How to do it, how to implement, how to seize the opportunities, and how to engage Africa.”

Also in this episode, Elizabeth Kneebone addresses the significance of increasing number of high poverty neighborhoods in our regular Metro Lens segment. Finally, Bill Finan interviews Steven Koltai, guest scholar in Governance Studies, on his new book “Peace through Entrepreneurship.”

Show notes:

Time for measured optimism on Africa 

De-risking, renminbi, internationalization, and regional integration 

Sub-Saharan Africa: IMF regional economic outlook

Thanks to audio producer Mark Hoelscher and producer Vanessa Sauter, and also thanks for additional support from Jessica Pavone, Nawal Atallah, and Rebecca Viser.

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