Goldman Sachs on investing in Africa: “Invest now or get left behind”
1Africa is the place to invest says global investment banking firm, Goldman Sachs in its latest “Fortnightly Thoughts” research report.
Goldman Sachs in its report states that now is the time to invest in Africa for savvy investors looking to get in early and reap rewards. In its words:
Africa’s exceptionally robust growth over the last decade is probably understated (informal parts of economies are very big), but not being able to measure this growth precisely shouldn’t detract from Africa‟s potential, which is about much more than resources as it evolves and climbs the consumption, urbanisation and perhaps industrialisation curves that the BRICs have climbed. We believe meaningful opportunities for western consumer companies exist as Africa‟s household consumption grows rapidly (it is already greater than some of the BRICs) and that failure to invest now will see others rush in.
According to Goldman Sachs, tomorrow’s Africa is going to be an economic force principally because the continent will have the largest workforce in the world by the middle of the century. “Demographics are becoming very favourable and will be the envy of the world in 20 years time,” said Goldman Sachs’ Scott Gale.
In addition, Africa’s abundant land mass in a world running out of arable land makes Africa a haven for generating agricultural exports.
According to Scott Gale, “The world needs Africa to substantially improve its agricultural yields, and we suspect it will require private capital to help it here, along with government support and sponsorship, as has been seen in the BRICs, with Brazil a very good example.”
