US Companies' Secret to Success in Africa: Invest in Africans!!

The first time I came to the African Continent was in 1998, when as a Peace Corps Volunteer I was send to Namoo, a rural community located in Bongo District of the Upper East Region (the most northern province) of Ghana. Namoo was located on the border with Burkina Faso. After my first visit there I was asked by some of my Ghanaian Peace Corps trainers, "so how was Namoo?", I replied "have you read the Bible?", they all said yes..."Have you read the part that says, God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th day?" again they all said yes...then I said, "Well, in Namoo's case God rested on the second day!!!" Namoo did not have much, 99% mud huts, no electricity, lack of access to water, and so on. 16 years later, Namoo, has electricity, 75% of houses are cement block houses, has access to more clean water boreholes, a clinic and there is a secondary school and a college there. Its young inhabitants are on Whatsapp, have e-mail addresses and exchange photos and music instantly on their cell phones!! You see houses that have satellites on their roofs, and most of the young adult of working age are in constant move pouring into the cities looking for jobs and a better life.

The economic growth and technological leapfrog of the past decade in Ghana and throughout Africa has put this continent on a path of unprecedented material growth. The last frontier of economic opportunity, 1.1 billion consumers waiting to be courted. These days everyone wants to court the Africans, one day its the Chinese, the other day its the Europeans and now its been  the Americans. In 1884 at the Berlin Conference it was the Scramble for Africa that led to formally colonizing Africa, these days the Scramble for Africa is about economic opportunities and gaining foothold into the markets.

During his speech at the 2014 US-Africa Summit, President Obama said, " The United States is determined to be a partner in Africa's success...a good partner, an equal partner and the partner for the long term. We don't look at Africa simply for its natural resources; we recognize Africa for its greatest resource, which is its people and its talents and their potential."

If the United States can keep its word as uttered by its President then Africa's fortunate can and will change for the better. The most important part of the focus must be the investment in the people of the continent.

American companies who come to the continent can be the catalyst to invest in people. This is not just giving wages to labor, and creating employment (as important as that is ) but rather setting up mentorship programs within the company to identify talent, develop creative/new management and organizational skills and a professional workforce that can raise standard in running organizations and private companies in Africa.

American companies can become involved in private-public investment to develop further the institutions that are already in place on the continent. For example they can invest in Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), which is set up to train Ghanaian public servants to be more effective in running national, regional and district government institutions and programs. Another institute is AGRHYMET (Centre Regional de Formation et d'Application en Agrometeorologie et Hydrologie Operationnelle), located in Niger, a training site related to food security, water issues, desertification and monitoring of real-time weather patterns for agriculture and grazing land for cattle. This regional institute provides training and information to the countries of the Sahel region.

American companies must implement Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)  and hold themselves to a higher standard unlike their Chinese, and Lebanese counterpart. Destroying the timberland of Ghana and poisoning the rivers of Africa is not good business and though it might get the company some quick money in the long run it will be bad for business. It must create good community relations and bring the best and teach the best of American business practices. Men, women and children that live in the company's area of operation must get some benefit or if no benefit, it must not receive any harm.

Remember just because the African politicians can be bribed into allowing you to dump the poison into the river that does not mean you should do it! Most likely the politician and his family don't get their drinking or bathing water from that river!!

I was recently in Ghana, and travelled to Burkina Faso and Niger. In Accra, I drove everyday for hours to my job and back, driving though the different neighborhoods of Ghana's capitol, I pass by hundreds of young men and women carrying goods to sell on their head and hands, struggling to make a living. Most have left and are leaving their small rural communities for what they think will be a better life in the big cities, whether it is Accra or Ouagadougou or Niamey. The young employable population leave their villages because of lack of employment opportunity and infrastructure. Large private investment in agricultural sector and US government's implementing of Power Africa will go a long way to slow this trend. A young unemployed, restless population gathering in urban centers around the continent put tremendous pressure on an already limited infrastructure and can create unrest unimaginable. Additional, it can be fertile recruitment ground for extremists and criminal syndicates. Agriculture can be an important sector to provide employment to the young, but that too must come with mentorship and training programs that develops the sector to a new level.

Since the 1960s when most African countries gained their independence many have come to Africa bearing gifts of war, coup, assassinations, plunder, bad development plans and ugly international politics. Perhaps now finally in 2016, one of those players, the United States, will set the example for others to follow by investing in Africans for Africa's development.