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The Hub promotes East African investment opportunities at Africa Investment Forum 2015

Published on November 04, 2015

Representatives from the Hub's investment and trade promotion teams took part in the recently concluded Africa Investment Forum 2015 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, organized by the African Union. The event promoted the East African Community as an investment destination by highlighting opportunities and resources in the region. Ethiopian President Hon. Mulatu Teshome and the former German President Horst Kohler opened the event. There were nearly 300 attendees, including 20 international investors from the European Union and the EAC.

The Hub's Director of Investment moderated a panel entitled: Agribusiness in East Africa: Investment Opportunities and recent case studies. The Hub's Director of Trade Promotion and AGOA moderated a panel on textiles and apparels.

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Left: The agribusiness panel - L to R: Fanuel Kidenda, EPZA; Kanini Mutooni, the Hub's Director of Investment; Blen Abebe, Schultze Global; Wilmot Allen, CrossBoundary

Right: Mr. Finn Holm-Olsen, the Hub's Director of Trade Promotion and AGOA

Take-aways from the agribusiness investment panel:

  • Investment in agribusiness relies on the ability of smallholders to access finance
  • Private equity helps businesses grow and drives economic development

Stand out investment opportunities:

  • Ethiopia: agro-processing and value addition, and production of oil seeds
  • Kenya: grain banks and warehousing systems
  • East African Community: improving agri-logistics along trade corridors in the region

Also in Ethiopia

The Hub's investment team took part in a side event organized by the UN Economic Commission on Africa (UNECA) with the title: Mobilizing private equity investments in support of SMEs. UNECA have been tasked by the African Union to develop an investment policy related to private equity investments in Africa. This policy should address key challenges that foreign investors face when making private equity investment in the region and should look at the impact of investment on SMEs. The forum engaged both SMEs and investors to better understand their challenges and opportunities.