African Investments Have Only Three Viable Sectors

By Jeremy Carden

Foreign aid and African investments have been rolling into the African continent more so than any other part of the globe amounting to around three billion American dollars. Of all the continents Africa has always been the poorest and over the last few decades has been notable deteriorating and as opposed the world. 's entire production Africa only produces two percent.

Professional people are continuously immigrating and every year around twenty thousand people leave the African continent especially in Southern Africa. In spite of the billions that has been invested in Africa most of the continent is effectively bankrupt due to debt and corruption within the government departments.

World economic experts state that there are three viable sectors which could be of interest to potential investors such as agriculture, telecommunications as well as infrastructure. Agriculture and agro processing are ripe areas in Africa for investing in that this area has been neglected over a long period and especially in the last two years where agricultural products fell by twenty five percent in value on the export market.

There are many opportunities and interesting insights for investors in the under developed but saturated markets of sub Saharan Africa with regards to mobile penetration and the 3G license boom in North Africa as well as South Africa that has only three mobile networks and one telecommunication service being Telkom.

The very first IPTV service was launched in Morocco although there is some scepticism on how the expansion of WIMAX will affect the high traffic convergence as opposed to the other African continents telecom sectors. Sudan in a good prospect as this sector has hardly been touched although large sums of money have already poured in by the overseas sectors. Analysts state that there are growth prospects and that this sector has not been explored in spite of the decline in oil prices and political unrest.

The infrastructure situation in Africa must also be viewed as an opportunity for African investments rather than a limitation. There are around three hundred million Africans that do not have reliable supplies of clean drinking water and millions more that don. 't have access to proper sanitation. Only four percent of Africa. 's water supply is used for the purpose of agricultural development as well as hydro electrical power, residential and industrial consumption.

Statistics have revealed that in modern times there are still around forty percent or more Africans that are totally illiterate and that the African continent alone accounts for a staggering 70% of HIV infected people causing the populations life expectancy to decrease rapidly and it has also been noted that Africa is at the very bottom of the list when it comes to human development and this was stated by the UNDP recently.

Despite all the statistics african investment can still afford investors viable opportunities and returns as long as the investors realize the potential risks involved as Africa. 's market sector is not saturated in comparison to other markets. The very best markets open for investment are agriculture, telecom and domestic infrastructure. There are other countries that have already realized this potential in Africa. - 23208

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