Food for thought
During the last decade, the African continent has delivered the most extraordinary results. Not only did the economy remain bullish during a global economic crisis, but it also shows no signs of slowing down.
Those who believed that Africa was “hopeless” are either changing their tune (good for them) or adopting a “wait and see” attitude (shame on them). To the latter, I would like to serve some food for thought: By 2013, it is expected that half of the population of Nigeria will be either lower middle class or above. Between 2001 and 2011, Angola was the fastest-growing economy in the world and is expected to continue to be so for many years to come. According to the IMF, Côte d’Ivoire is one of 14 countries in Africa whose GDP is expected to grow between 7 and 8% this year, despite the country’s recent troubles. I could go on, but you get the idea.
I expect that the naysayer’s rebuttal would include words like “drought’ and “power cuts”. I would like to remind them that the power-supply deficit is being resolved not only by new oil and gas strikes in Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Angola, Mozambique, Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Sudan, but also by vast investments into renewable energies (South Africa is currently building the world’s largest solar park and Kenya is building Africa’s largest wind farm). Regarding food shortages, new crops resistant to heat, droughts, and every bug under the sun, have become a reality at a time when a vast reservoir of groundwater has been discovered underneath the Sahara. In fact, according to Harvard University, the entire continent will easily be able to produce enough to feed its growing population within the next decade.
With savvy investors wanting a slice of the African pie, I think it is safe to say that the proverbial corner has well and truly been turned! I rest my case.
This post has one comment
Post a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
In certain reptcess it doesn’t matter where it comes from in terms of pricing, as oil is [mostly] fungible [glazing a little over long-term supply contracts]. The price will be affected by middle east crude no matter where we purchase it from. Of course producers could refuse to send it to us, but take out the biggest (or one of the biggest) customers in the market and the price will drop. One crazy thing is the US/Venezuela symbiosis. Venezuela pumps out a really heavy crude that can only be refined into petrol at certain refineries, located in, you guessed it, the United States. So, when Hugo talks about not selling to us if we attack Iran, he’s full of it.One potential problem, though; both Mexico and Venezuela, our #3 and #4 providers are state companies with bad histories of maintenance and falling production numbers. If they don’t shape up (not likely any time soon) we’ll have to ship it in from further away.