Africa the country!

 

What if all those tourists were right and “Africa” was just one big amorphous place? A borderless “country” with sweeping highways from Lagos to Nairobi and from Cairo to Cape Town; a place where trade flowed freely and its 700 million residents could migrate and seek employment at will. It would indeed make for a compelling investment destination, and according to the IMF, Africa is a continent with a GDP of USD 2 trillion and growing to USD 29 trillion by 2050.

 

Considering Africa as a single market or at least a group of regional markets changes the game entirely. As a trading bloc it would have a GDP greater than Russia and as a combined continent would control approx 15% of the world’s oil output. Additionally looking into the future where food security will become an increasing global concern, Africa holds about 25% of the world’s arable land.

 

But alas, Africa is not quite there yet! It is after all 54 independent countries not unlike the EU, it’s a wide variety of culturally and economically diverse nations working under a common political union with a “single currency”. Politically, the AU is in its infancy and is still finding it feet as a governing body and although each sovereign African state has its own currency, the vast majority of its 53 member states happily utilise a dual currency system relying on dollar-based pricing for cross border trade. Ironically similar dual systems have been muted as a solution to the Euros’ woes in 2012.