20091228
allafrica

Kampala — BUSINESS in Africa will remain profitable and growing throughout 2010, a survey has shown. According to Africa Practice's annual business survey, business leaders predicted a positive outlook for 2010, with 95% of the respondents expecting to expand their businesses over the coming year.

Africa practice is a strategic communications consultancy with a network of branches across Africa.

The survey findings support the growing belief that Africa is beginning to recover from the effects of financial crisis.

"All the respondents (100%) said they anticipated foreign direct investment (FDI) to increase in 2010, with the majority expected to come from China," the report indicated.

"This represents a much-improved outlook when compared to last year's survey in which 69% of respondents predicted a reduction in FDI in-flows."

When asked what they thought would be the biggest challenges to their businesses in 2010, the executives were split between access to credit and availability of talent, polling 35% and 30% respectively.

This echoed last year's findings in which 31% of the respondents cited talent as the biggest concern.

Physical infrastructure and legislative environments were also cited as potential growth limitations.

The majority of the respondents also cited advancements in technological infrastructure as being more significant for business opportunity than politics, thus reaffirming the assertion that ICTs were key enablers of productive business.

"An improvement in communication around the continent, especially in Internet and mobile phone access, will increase opportunities to reach more people on the continent," Salim Amin, the A24 Media chairman, said.

"The interest in Africa because of events like the World Cup will also throw a larger spotlight on the continent." "The Internet is the world's biggest marketplace, with more than 1.5 billion users. In most countries it is trivial for a teenager to start trading online using a PayPal account and eBay as a marketplace," said Henk Kleynhans, the Skyrove Wifi Hotspots boss.

Increased intra-African business and moving away from a reliance on international exports was cited as key in Africa's private sector development with Alasdair Munn, the director of Rebuild Zimbabwe commenting: "The biggest market for Africa is Africa herself. Growth in private investment and empowering communities has greater potential for Africa than just exports."

However, there was a consensus of optimism about the impact of the FIFA World Cup in Africa, even with most (54%) of those polled believing that its benefits would be felt only in South Africa.

The future role of the US prompted a mixed reaction. Only 17% of the business leaders expect the Obama administration to have a positive influence in Africa.