The Giant Grows Africa in 10 Years

[Music] good evening uh good evening all for this last session of uh uh TR uh what a pleasure to host uh that discussion today in the capital of capital uh jointly with laurance vate who is a senior lawyer at dul Florence and is now based in Abu Dhabi uh dealing with Africa mainly and Ronald shakuri Jr Vice chairman of echo Atlantic uh coming all the way from Lagos Nigeria Echo Atlantic is the first African fully sustainable and smart city um let aside all your focus on infrastructure I'm Karim Mam and I run Sky capital uh a leading Investment Banking Boutique F focusing on cross B transaction and Building Bridges between uh developed and developing markets let's start uh with this first question directly Lance if time permits we will include uh an opportunity for audience questions alternatively a panelist can use his time to delve deeper into key issue raised and I know both have a lot a lot to say during this discussion Laurence first of all um ppps and accelerated Economic Development have been a key team uh for the region development to attract more funding and more International investors particularly from from UAE and how do you perceive the risk management for these investors in a continent that uh has been late to develop thank you Karim uh hello uh uh everyone um so to answer your question ppps have the the potential to accelerate economic development in Africa by uh leveraging uh the private sectors investment Innovation efficiency uh while meeting public needs but there are certain best practi uh that can enhance their effectiveness first of all as a as a lawyer I will tell you the clear and comprehensive uh legal and regul Regulatory framework I can give you the example of the uh West African economy and monetary Union the UMO uh directive on public uh private Partnerships that was adopted in uh 2022 uh but which is an excellent tool for ppps in Africa and in the western part um it is though still in the process of being transposed in the in the eight member states um the reason of this is that Sagal and Mali for example already uh have uh local uh laws relating to ppps and therefore have to review their laws to comply with this uh directive um I took my notes because there are so many um so many uh things to say about this question um of course um um we we always we also need a strong project preparation um uh capacity building within government agencies are are which are involved in ppps um which include training for procurement process and stop using uh only overthe counter or direct agreements which is the case in Africa um uh contract management and Fin and financial monitoring is crucial um in DRC for example I can tell about the which is a special unit that was set up uh when the president uh was reelected and this unit uh aims at raising awareness uh in the provinces about standard methodology and ppp's criteria and conditions all over the country thanks thanks about International investor for example e Atlantic City has been granted the status of free zone how can this free zone demon attract the potential of PPP in refunding urban development in Africa and how do you see these projects like e Atlantic creating ecosystem that attract business and talents um so I would say it all starts with infrastructure no matter what we the way we see it so uh Atco Atlantic we're building a city that's full-fledged infrastructure um and very modern infrastructure and we're pushing a lot towards uh uh efficient infrastructure so when we start with that it already makes it attractive for businesses to uh to operate out of Nigeria now we add the free zone element to it and the right regulatory uh um setting and suddenly now EO Atlantic becomes a lot more attractive to International investors because it it adds a lot more known factors for businesses that want to come into a market such as Nigeria which is a very big Market um and so yeah so that's really what and we've seen successes of free zones around the world I mean adgm being a great example and um free zones around Nigeria some of them have had some have seen some very big success and in the case of e Atlantic there will be an idea of how do we create a financial free zone but also a commercial free zone and places like here are definitely a very good inspiration of what can be done for businesses thanks thanks Ral but taking the take leveraging on this point of infrastructure for big countries like DRC and Nigeria and um talking about the infrastructure work that your companies have done uh notably on City interconnectivity uh and all the transportation issues that these countries have faced how can City interconnectivity Drive economic growth and great potential in between country and in between cities and all the CSR initiatives that your group has implemented how can this impact goes uh so definitely roads are probably one of the most crucial uh aspects of infrastructure uh for countries to develop or regions to develop so we have been building extensive amount of Roads uh and there are plans to build extensive amount of roads in Nigeria and in West Africa and what that does is allows to connect cities by connecting cities suddenly we improve trades among cities we improve trade with U for manufacturing we improve uh agriculture as well within the city and tourism so for example we're work we're currently uh building uh the Lagos calibar Coastal Highway which is a 700 kilometer Road that's connecting the west and the East southern part of Nigeria that alone will suddenly unlock hundreds of kilometers of coasts that have not been developed in Nigeria that opens tourism that opens uh uh Industries around the area and that also promotes again agriculture so when we do that that suddenly that strengthen that strengthens the the country economically and socially as well um what would take days of maybe a day of trans of of Transport can now be happening in hours that definitely creates a lot of different uh potential for also developing other cities in the main capital but then that connects we can now connect to neighboring countries and that again improves trade and industrialization of the entire region uh these these countries are very wealthy countries laurance uh and both in Nigeria and in DRC have a lot of Mining and we have seen GCC investors and UE investors investing in uh in mins strategic minerals and investment strategies how how can responsible exploit exploitation of strategic minerals transform African economies and what Frameworks are necessary to ensure these resources benefit local communities are valued uh at the right value for the countries and attract Global Investors And crossw Trades the the responsible exploitation of strategic medal can can significantly uh transform African economies in several ways provided of course it is done sustainably uh and with a thoughtful and uh efficient distribution of profits um so um the um African countries uh rich in strategic minerals such as Cobalt lithium uh Rare Earth elements that are critical for economic electronic sorry and batteries uh can experience substantial growth um if manage well the revenues can be reinvested into infrastructure Health Care education supporting broader industrialization and also to Foster other sectors um of course uh it can um give rise to uh it can create jobs uh because the mining refining and all related Industries have the potential to uh create millions of jobs for this we also need to have a transfer of technology and um and of um skills absolutely to the local population um what I can say as well is that um it um it will also Foster the regional integration because if um um the thanks to crossb infrastructure project uh countries can create uh uh value chain absolutely and we can see that from Zambia and thec for example with the batteries the uh the mining sector is indeed a a capex heavy sector not only for the mine itself but also for the entire infrastructure that surround the mine notably roads and Railways and transport these uh mines and outputs towards ports airports for uh export purposes how do you see Laurence crossb um transaction flow between UAE and Africa around this particular sector uh well we we are seeing more and more um transactions and investments from the UAE into Africa but uh hopefully in the coming years um they they they they will continue to to grow and to um to be encouraged by the um government the African government themselves um they should approach more and more the uh UAE uh investors and Sovereign funds for investment in the mining industry but also in other sectors uh but what I have noticed is that um the uh some of the African governments um um don't have the awareness or the knowledge of the the UAE the uae's will to invest and um and power to invest as well absolutely approaching the GCC investors and not in investors with structured uh trades and structured transaction is key to attract these investors and lack of investment and potential needs in the infrastructure sector R uh is uh is um is very uh appearing in is is appearing in in the structures and project that your group is is undergoing right now I mean as a continent as a whole like Africa is seeing about 150 billion1 170 billion dollar yearly requirement for infrastructure investing and that's going to definitely need International Partners um the potential is huge population is growing and is going to keep growing for a very long time and it's only going to keep adding a very strong need for more and more infrastructure and that comes in very large number very very big numbers and that that requires extensive financing um definitely countries like uh UAE and uh many other regions could be potential powerful partners with Africa and seeing that development and also uh potential for extension of the businesses into the region um it is something that we believe is a very has a very strong potential like you as you mentioned and um I believe could be a very natural partner for Africa thank you uh laurance couple of words to conclude that panel time is running out oh thank you um well what I can say is that uh Africa is the continent of future uh with spook of minds but also we can speak about other uh natural resources energy um and what we have to bear in mind as well is that by 2050 onethird of the um young population of the world I.E below 25 years old will be African so bearing this in mind uh there are many many opportunities to explore especially for the for the UAE investors absolutely that's a the the human resource alone is going to be one of the most important uh in the world one third it's uh by 2050 it's just around the corner it's going to be the last one of the last young places in the world yeah I think uh based on the clock that is scking thank you very much for your time today and thanks to all oh