David O. Kuranga, Ph.D.
The author is the Managing Director and Principal of Kuranga and Associates, a full-service investment, political and economic risk consultancy, and asset management firm that specializes in Africa. He is also the author of The Power of Interdependence with Palgrave Macmillan Press.
African Business Round Table hosted its fifth annual African Investment Summit at the Waldorf Astoria in New York alongside the UN General Assembly. In attendance were a number of prominent bankers from Nigeria as well as high-powered officials and emerging youth leaders.
The forum stressed the need for Africans throughout the world to contribute to the growth and development of Africa. Many of the panelists made calculated decisions to live and work abroad in order to become entrepreneurs and contributors to Africa rising. Kuranga and Associates Limited shares these same sentiments and actively seeks to bolster budding new enterprises with its incubator and SME financing practice. A number of banking CEOs as well as policymakers recognized the vital role that SMEs play in the growth and development of a modern economy. While financing remains a major challenge for SMEs in Africa, initiatives like Kuranga and Associates Limited incubator and SME fund provide avenues for international capital to reach these high-growth enterprises while achieving relatively strong returns. Returns on investment in Africa far outstrips returns found elsewhere in the world. In addition investment failure is far less prevalent than what is currently perceived.
There was a lot of optimism among investors, policy makers, business leaders, and Africans in diaspora. In general, participants were focus their energy on learning from each others experiences and putting their talents and resources to action. One of the panelist rejected the title of “think tank” calling themselves a “dink tank” that was more focused on doing than theorizing. Many of the young African’s in diaspora were also keenly interested as to how they too could find opportunities to return to Africa and become actively involved in Africa’s future. Every year we are finding that more and more participants are finding their way back to establish successful businesses and coming back to the forum to share their experiences.
Kuranga and Associates Global Consultancy is a political and economic risk management firm and an asset manager with a principle practice area of Africa. To learn more about Kuranga and Associates go to www.kaglobal.net. © Copyright 2014 David Kuranga. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
David O. Kuranga; Ph.D. Managing Director
Kuranga & Associates Global Consultancy
Phone: 212.363.0936
david.kuranga@kaglobal.net
https://kurangaandassociates.wordpress.com
http://us.macmillan.com/thepowerofinterdependence/DavidOladipupoKuranga