africon business analyst Mr. Al-Salafi has collaborated with The African Development & Investment Convention (ADIC) Mr. Mamora to produce an article about Investments and obstacles in Africa.
To read the article please visit the following link: Article
https://adic.afidep.com/news-blog/366-investors-challenge-and-interest-in-africa.html
On the 23rd of March 2017, Marc Zander, CEO of africon, participated in the Germany Africa Business Forum (GABF) as the moderator of the panel discussion “Germany grows abroad – venturing to Africa for new markets”. In the presence of high ranked African politicians such as the former president of the Republic of Benin, Boni Yayi and the Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons of Equatorial Guinea Gabriel M. O. Lima, German and African business men and women came together in the prestigious Adlon Kempinski Hotel.
In absence of German politicians, one could assist to very openminded and trustful discussions. So, Mr. Lima expressed his wish that Germans should be “as aggressive as the other nations to show to the Africans that they are interested”. Also, Mr. J.H. Muhindo, Deputy Head of Mission of the embassy of Uganda, stressed the wish of his country that Germany would rather invest into Uganda’s industrialisation than continuing paying traditional development aid as there are many graduated young people in Uganda who were not able to gain suitable jobs. Altogether, the image of a strong and innovative Africa was drawn during the GABF, that stands in extreme contrast to generally published image of a poor continent in need. This was mainly due to the presence of modern and successful African business people such as Erick Yong, Onyeche Tifase or Rebecca Enonchong.
Between the panels, there were many occasions for exchange between the participants of the forum so that newcomers in the German African business scene could benefit from the experiences of established players.
Watch here a video-summary of the fair:
What do you get when you mix Kenyan mango farmers, a European food initiative, a German consulting firm, and a Kenyan health food company? Give up?? The answer, of course, is dried mango. (Kaushe maembe in Swahili.)
The article speaks on the joint project of SAVE Food, africon GmbH and the Messe Düsseldorf in Kenya.
How exactly did that come to pass? As you might suspect, it’s complicated. But it starts with a whole lot of wasted mangoes. More than half the crop—64 percent to be exact—never made it to market. That’s 300,000 tons of tasty, nutritious mangoes squandered every year in a country that, like most places, is no stranger to hunger. There are very few secondary markets. Somehow, it is cheaper to import mango pulp from India to make juice.
The next ingredient was a European yen to fight food waste through a practical project. That interest came from the SAVE FOOD initiative, which launched in 2011 as a collaboration between German exhibition organizer Messe Dusseldorf and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (and later the UN Environment Program). Messe Dusseldorf and SAVE FOOD hired africon, a German consulting firm specializing on Africa, to perform research on Kenyan food losses in 2013.
More on: africon in the National Geographic
