Last week was particularly interesting for our TFFT team and monumental for US-Africa relations. 47 of 54 African heads of state convened in DC for a Summit to encourage collaboration between our country and the African continent. I was fortunate to be able to attend the US-Africa Leaders Summit, by invitation from Ambassador Liberata Mulamula, the Tanzanian Ambassador to The United States.
(Panel Discussion)
My focus was mostly around the sessions regarding Tanzania and the potential that exists there, where the private sector is investing currently and where the opportunities lie. You might be wondering, why an NGO would care about what the private sector is doing?? Well – it matters not only for economic development in general for the region, it matters because TFFT’s role in all this is creating a well educated work force to fuel the growth of these private sector companies.
(President Kikwete addresses the audience)
The Corporate Council on Africa in partnership with the Embassy of the United Republic of Tanzania and the Tanzanian Investment Center put on a session about “Doing Business in Tanzania.” I was truly shocked to hear how small America’s presence was in Tanzania and Africa in general. Tanzania has the largest growing middle class in the world, and is the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in East Africa. The UK, China and India all come before the US with regards to FDI.
A big highlight of the day for me was meeting H.E. Dr. Jakaya Kikwete, the President of the United Republic of Tanzania. He was only meant to speak to our group for 10-15 minutes and he stayed on for an hour plus pitching Tanzania as a place for growth and opportunity. He talked about energy and power being a welcoming sector. It was shocking to hear that only 36% of Tanzanians have access to electricity, and it is all because the country isn’t producing enough power. He then focused on opportunities that exist and are growing in the agriculture sector, infrastructure needs, the strength of our tourism industry and the mining sector, not just looking at the traditional gemstones but also other minerals that can fuel technology advances in the coming decade.
(View from the Atlas Mara event)
(Bloomberg Event at the Carnegie Library)
All in all I walked away pretty excited about working in Tanzania, and where it had the potential to go in the next 10-20 years. Our Tanzanian Ministers were talking a big game about becoming a middle income country by 2025, and inflation rates dropping from 6.4% to under 5% by next year. As President Kikwete said, “we must seize the moment.” Are you ready? TFFT is!
(The Ultimate TEAM TZ Selfie- Ashish Thakkar, CEO Mara Group, Meghann Gunderman Bourne, ED of TFFT, Susan Mashibe, Founder, Owner and Executive Director of VIA Aviation, and Mohammed Dewji, CEO of METL Group Tanzania!)
To read more from the Summit take a look here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/us-africa-leaders-summit or you can peek into my Twitter coverage here: http://twitter.com/TFFTAFRICA