Out of the Shadows

Why should you consider Africa as a business destination? The Pan African Trade and Investment Summit at the University of Minnesota last October attempted to answer this question. About 300 business leaders and an impressive group of diplomats from Africa and the United States gathered to help make business connections between Minnesota and Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, and many other African countries. One-on-one consultations, break-out sessions, and networking were part of the summit’s offerings, which have led to several budding partnerships.

It was more than just another business summit, says Henry Ongeri, the former executive director of the Pan African Business Alliance, the Africa-oriented chamber of commerce based in St. Louis Park that organized the summit. It was the first time, he believes, the business community has taken an in-depth look at the possibilities of doing business in Africa. Ongeri is the owner of international law firm H. M. Ongeri & Associates and the African Business Consulting Corporation, a tax consulting firm that focuses on helping immigrants. Both are based in St. Louis Park.

Ongeri shares his observations about why Minnesota should consider Africa as a business destination, and what it could lose if it doesn’t.

{Twin Cities Business} Businesspeople need a baseline of knowledge about doing business in Africa. What don’t they know?

{HENRY ONGERI} One of the things they don’t know is that there is money to be made in Africa. The other thing that people need to know is a very simple fact—that Africa is not a country. Africa is a continent. It has almost 1 billion people, 52 different countries, different governments, at different stages of development. That is important, because people tend to paint Africa with one huge brush. Last year, African economies grew at the fastest rate ever.

{TCB} What is the Pan African Business Alliance doing?

{H. O.} I helped to start the Pan African Business Alliance in 2003. The goal is to provide new immigrants—especially from sub-Saharan Africa—with the resources and the support they need to successfully operate businesses [in Minnesota and in Africa].

We needed a way to not just talk about our businesses locally, but also say why, for example, would a company from Minnesota go to India of China and locate a plant there, when they also could do this in South Africa and in Nigeria. They have a reliable, trained work force there. People speak English there.

The argument that we are making is that Africa is really the next destination. If it isn’t, then Minnesota businesses will have missed out. The summit gave African countries an opportunity to come and say, ‘Look, here’s how much Internet connectivity we have, this is our work force, this is our currency.’ Frankly, people learned a lot from that. They said, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that South Africa has the 17th largest stock exchange in the world.’ Or, ‘I didn’t know that Kenya has 150 miles of coastline and sandy beaches that people visit.’