US Missing the Economic Boat in West Africa

It goes without saying that no one knows how the international monetary meltdown will ultimately affect Africa - after all we are still in the early stages of assessing the effects in the US and other affected developed nations. Surely there will be severe ripple effects in Africa.

None of this changes the fact that Africa is potentially a huge economic market and as African nations move toward developing more sophisticated economic and legal infrastructures, more and more businesses and nations will turn their attention toward developing markets in Africa. So it should also go without saying that US businesses must be laying the groundwork for a competitive future in Africa, especially in those nations where a common language provides markets that are relatively easy to break into right? 

Wrong.

Take Ghana for example. During the past 6 years, demand for consumer goods in Ghana, the oldest and  most stable democracy in West Africa, has grown by an average of 20% per annum. Yet few American businesses have been willing to put their figurative toe in the water. While businesses from  China and even small nations like Dubai are aggressively developing markets in this country, US businesses and the entities representing them - the Department of Commerce and USAID most notably, have been pulling in their figurative horns. To put it bluntly, other nations are eating our lunch in what should logically be our point of entry into the largest English speaking market outside of the continental US. By the time we start paying attention, it may very well be too late.

In the next few days, we'll begin to explore both the economic and security considerations for playing a much more proactive role in the economic development of West Africa.

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