1. 4th Athens Triennial Meeting
Panel on Investment Athens - 10 November 2017
Member of Islamic Development Bank Group

2. Sub Saharan Africa : “Underdeveloped or Underestimated”
Enormous challenges and significant gaps on many development outcomes
Significant gap to its development
infrastructure is underdeveloped
Estimated that around 43% of the African population still lived in extreme poverty in 2012 (World Bank)
Nearly two third live without electricity,
An even larger share still relies on biomass as the primary cooking solution
More than 60 percent of Africa’s population lives in rural areas, making the region’s economy intrinsically dependent on agriculture
Access to Education is limited and selective
only 23.1 percent of African enterprises have loans or lines of credit

3. TRANSFORMING AFRICA : constraints to investing in Africa transformed into investment opportunities.
What next to transform Sub Saharan Africa
Current policy weakness limits the growth potential for entrepreneurs, but also restricts private sector development and the region’s overall development.
However , Africa’s large infrastructure, technology and policy gaps require disruptive solutions
Once the constraints are turned into investment opportunities, there will be alignment between Africa’s development agenda and decent returns for private sector investors.

4. Areas to be tackled for transformation growth
Agriculture : Food security and building capacity for export
Education : Skill level upgrade and matching
Energy & Infrastructure : Abundance of Resources yet lacking Capacity
Finance : Access for SME development
Governance : The Foremost Change
Information Technologies : Africa Leapfrogging into the IT , triggering
innovation

5. Partners for Africa : the Chinese dragon in the backyard of the African lion
Recent trends :
Move from traditional to non-traditional partners : China, India and other smaller economies
China: Africa’s biggest economic partner
#1 in Trade , FDI Growth & Infrastructure Finance
#3 in Aid
Priority is in Energy, transport infrastructure and mining
More than Chinese firms in less than 2 decades
In Manufacturing, Trade, Construction, Services