Source: Business Day (Johannesburg)

By Martyn Davies

WITH a regional population of about 250-million, west Africa provides a large and untapped market for foreign companies. The region is also rich in mineral and natural resources. However, despite the obvious potential the region offers to international investors, it has yet to generate the type of interest that it deserves.

This can be attributed in large part to the risk involved in investing in countries which have, since the end of the colonial era, been wracked with internal conflict and political and economic fragmentation. The tumultuous histories of countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire are well-known. Political risk in Nigeria was rising too as it headed to the polls late last month.

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Posted by pichu at May 7, 2007 9:51 PM