African Investment Drive Underway Alongside UN General Assemby (Day 2 &3)

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

African Investment Drive Underway Alongside the UN General Assembly (DAY 1)

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.

DAY 1:

Alongside high-level delegations from around the world, a major investment drive is underway in New York, as African delegations are busy seeking to increase investment among international investors from around the world gathered in New York. Meetings underway have taken place at the New York Stock Exchange hosted by African Investor Magazine, and at the United Nations Headquarters hosted by the African Business Roundtable. One common theme among African delegations is that the level of investment coming from Western investors is far less today than the level of investment that they are seeing coming from Asian investors. The hope is that by targeted marketing and promotion African can convince institutional investors to increase their exposure to African investment opportunities where returns remain higher on average than the rest of the world. Alongside CEO’s and Ministers from around the world President Mahama from Ghana addressed the gathering at the New York Stock Exchange to highlight the developments ongoing in Africa and the plethora of investment opportunities and returns existing investors are seeing. At UN Headquarters heads of state and government gathered to discuss multilateral strategies to enhance peace and security in order to promote growth and development.

There is tremendous interest among international investors in Africa, perhaps more so than ever before. Major concerns were liquidity of investments, regional integration, and political stability. Panelist sought to address these concerns while investors shared their experiences and successes in order to foster a better understanding of how international investors should approach Africa. Kuranga and Associates has consistently sought to highlight investment opportunities in SMEs and privately held firms in Africa, particularly in Nigeria. While international investors are keenly interested in these opportunities they find it very difficult to access them. Kuranga and Associates will continue to position ourselves as a bridge between international capital investors and privately held investment opportunities in Africa and Nigeria. We will continue to share our stories at the UN General Assembly 2014.

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

Ukraine: Diplomatic Debacle

David O. Kuranga, Ph.D.

The author is the Managing Director and Principal of Kuranga and Associates, a full-service boutique investment firm, specializing in political and economic risk and asset management services in Africa. He is also the author of The Power of Interdependence with Palgrave Macmillan Press.

Rising tensions in Ukraine has many international investors on edge. In addition to the general lack of knowledge of the crisis, an end to the ongoing conflict seems nowhere in sight, neither can anybody reliably predict an outcome. The conflict escalated to its current state after President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in a coup just after he signed an international peace agreement with opposition parties that was meant to leave him as president till elections were held in a few months.