NEPAD has been proclaimed a "new dawn for Africa, since, for the first time in history of Africa, her leaders have collectively taken responsibility for the continent's development.

Paragraph 67, NEPAD Policy Document.

Its Targets are:

• “To achieve and sustain an average gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of above 7 % pa for the next 15 years”
• To ensure Africa meets the International Development Goals (IDG)”

(Paragraph 68, NEPAD Policy Document)

Briefly, the IDG goals are targets for developing countries which focus on alleviating poverty, ensuring schooling, equality, improving health, reversing environment loss etc.

        

1.5        NEPAD Principles

On analysis of the strategic framework of NEPAD, we have identified and interpreted certain principles (or themes) that run through the NEPAD document. We find that many of these principles are currently espoused by modern business writers and used in most forward moving Organisations and Corporations in the world. Herewith are the key principles that underlie NEPAD:-

1. NEPAD a Vision and Paradigm Shift (Changing Stakeholder Perceptions); It has been stated that the culture of an organisation is likely to drive the strategy. (Johnson, Scholes: P238). NEPAD is based on establishing a culture of good governance, it is based on the premise that, given the correct environment for economic growth, African Leaders can and will be able to deliver on good political and economic governance. The Vision of a united and prosperous Africa may be outrageous for some, but in 1939 it would have been outrageous to suggest the concept of a united Europe, or in 1970s to say that Nelson Mandela will become president of SA.  NEPAD serves to create a harmonious vision of Africa and expect it to be self-fulfilling since we know that, given the Pygmalion theory, positive affirmations will be self-fulfilling. The two key perceptions areas where NEPAD seeks to shift, viz:

• to change the current prevailing culture of conflicts, mismanagement and poor governance
• To change the negative paradigm that prevails in the western world, i.e. Africa is not an economically viable investment market compared to other regions.  

This twin approach to changing perceptions is explained by the involvement of a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. Some of the Internal stakeholders are:  

• African Leaders and States,
• African Organisations such as AU, SADEC etc.,
• African NGOs  
• African Media and
• African Corporations.

The External stakeholders:

• G8 countries,
• International Monetary Fund (IMF),
• World Bank
• United nations and supporting Organisations
• NGO’s such as Green Peace, Human Rights Watch
• International Media, and
• major global corporations such as Microsoft, Coca Cola and Barclay Bank. (Sunday Times: June2002).

For NEPAD to be successful it is imperative that all internal stakeholders are allowed to be included in the decision-making. How far this is come is discussed in the Challenges Facing NEPAD (3.0 below). However, the external stakeholders are also lobbied for financial backing since, it is calculated that NEPAD will cost $US64bn per annum. ().

The G8, major global corporations, IMF and world bank are gradually supporting the principles of NEPAD and their confidence in the new breed of African Leaders is increasing. In fact some global corporate leaders are acknowledging that African leaders are changing, Vernon Ellis, international chairman of Accenture was quoted at saying "NEPAD … has given us all the opportunity to interact with a new breed of African leaders who are not afraid to admit their mistakes, correct them and seek advice," (Sunday Times:09 June 2002).

2. NEPAD the partnership concept: Interdependency and mutual political and economic partnerships are best practices currently prevailing in the modern world.  Whilst in the past, partnerships between countries were based on political reasons eg. Berlin-Tokyo axis (WW2) and NATO. We see that governments are extending this to include economic partnerships and hence we find the Synergy concept being used by NEPAD, ensuring that the combined effect is greater than the sum of all the parts. The current best practice for this concept is the EU. The EU concept of political, social and economic partnerships has brought huge financial rewards to the member countries. Spain has moved from having a GDP of less than Philippines 15 years ago to the top 20 economies in the world.  Last week the EU became the largest economic bloc in the world, forging new international partnership that change the relationship between member countries. Partnerships and synergy within African groups and organisations (AU), amongst African Countries and regions, between African Corporations and Government and between Africa and Global players is a key concept of NEPAD;

3. The Principle of Good Political governance. This is the cornerstone of the NEPAD strategy and further elucidates the paradigm shift required.  The rule of law, equality of citizens, freedom, peace and security. The proactive protection of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, ethnic minorities, women and children. The protection of environment and African Natural resources and the peacefully management and resolution of regional conflicts. NEPAD requires Governments and corporate leaders ensure good Political and Economic policies and practices ensuring transparency and freedom of expression whilst adhering to sound democratic standards and codes. As illustrated by in the South African experience, this is a basic requirement for peace, security and sustainable socio-economic development.

4. Good Economic and corporate governance, adoption of international codes and standards, international standards on auditing, sound economic management, optimization of resources and development of African core competencies. The King Report 1 and 2 is South Africa’s contribution to good corporate governance in our country. Although there are many challenges facing South African corporations in implementing same, these reports have given invaluable direction and focus to corporations. These and other business lessons can be shared to other African Corporations.

5. Peer Appraisal/Review  is an effective tool in endearing effective and responsible leadership. This principle of self and peer appraisal is a key requirement and is enshrined in NEPAD strategy framework. Effective leadership in African States will ensure the alignment and rollout of the NEPAD vision to the people of Africa, ensuring people’s ownership and broad participation by all sectors of African society. Also the taking of ownership of regional and African issues ensuring that African problems are solved by Africans themselves and not policed by a higher authority such as UN or USA.  This concept also serves to discourage the condescending attitude of certain influential global stakeholders. Peer Review on economic, social and political aspects will focuses on internal change before external change. However there are still deep divisions within certain African Leaders to include political aspects in the peer review process.
6. Selling Core Competencies: Africa’s core competencies lie in agriculture, manufacturing and resource availability. NEPAD is focussed on securing Africa’s resources and resourcefulness of its people, to develop this and sell this to the Global Markets;

7. Human Rights, People-centeredness and  empowerment. With a history of human right abuses that has tainted Africa, it comes to no surprise that  NEPAD document is high on human rights. These principles ensure that previously disadvantaged groups such as women, vulnerable groups, ethnic minorities etc. are treated equally and justly and given a democratic right to share their views. Diversity is also a key management principle, whereby large global organisations such as Shell and Coca Cola are actively encouraging gender and ethnic diversity in decision making. Diversity is also a Global Best Practice in the European Community (EU) who are quickly realising the benefits of ethnic minorities,  according to the EU reports, ethnic minorities contribute over 37billion British pounds to the UK economy. (M Buelens: P43). The African continent needs a diverse opinion base in government and corporations, if they are to change their current course.  

8. Emancipation of Women

NEPAD choose this concept for several reasons :-

• Generally, women will support programs that benefit their situation. Women make up over 51% of the population which translates as almost half of the population will give support to the NEPAD course.
• The reality is that women are the most disadvantaged group in Africa and this needs to be corrected.
• Women are key in family planning, HIV/Aids prevention, hygiene, education and nurturing of future leaders and empowering women will assist in these problems. In most rural household, women are sole or major supporters of family,
• Africa is culturally a male dominated society. In most countries masculinity is mistaken for good leadership. Women bear the brunt of most discrimination and abuse. No African Country has produced a woman Leader.
• In theory, empowering women economically will almost double the GDP of the regions.

1.6.9        Linking with other goals: NEPAD is not intended to re-invent current and past processes that are geared towards addressing poverty. An important principle of NEPAD is to support and recognise other goals that address its strategy such as World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) targets and UN charters. Hence one of the Targets of NEPAD is to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving world poverty by the year 2015;

6. NEPADs Key performance Areas

Accordingly the strategic framework of NEPAD has identified 3 key performance areas. In order for NEPAD to succeed in delivering the African Renaissance, we have identified the following key Performance Areas, using the analogy of constructing a building (as suggested by the Pricewaterhouse Cooper Report on NEPAD),  we list these as:

1. The foundation Stone – Establishing the base-plate for sustainable development through:

• Improved peace and security
• Improved democracy and good governance
• Improved economic and corporate governance
• Sub-regional and regional collaboration and integration

2. The building Blocks – prioritising reform and investment into key resources and sectors of the African economy

• Infrastructure, such as internet and communication technology (ICT), energy, transport, water, and sanitation
• Human Resources in particular poverty reduction, education, reversing loss of skill “brain-drain” and health.
• Agriculture - one of the most important areas in Africa, this will ensure food security and afford global competition.
• The environment – protecting Africa’s natural resources and ensuring sustainability.
• Culture, Science and Technology-moving Africa towards the vision of an African Renaissance.

3. To cement the building Blocks together – Galvanise resources to support the reform programme and the growth objectives such as:

• Enhancing capital flows by increasing domestic resourse mobilisation and reducing capital flight, enhancing debt relief, enhancing flows of overseas development funds and improving delivery systems and increasing private capital flows.
• Improving markets access for African countries by diversifying production through reform of, and investment in key African  industries such as: agriculture, mining, tourism, manufacture, export and services.
• Removing non-tariff barriers and harnessing the private sector in development. (; a new dawn for Africa)

Using the balanced scorecard method the African Leaders/Government can be appraised on these critical performance areas, using the peer review process entrenched in NEPAD strategy.

1. The Role of NEPAD for South African Companies

South Africa is strategically placed both politically and economically to be the driving force to NEPAD. South African is considered to have the best infrastructure and the highest GBP in Africa.

Below is a table of the comparison of African countries by GDP as at march 2004.

Table 1.0: African Countries and GDP

Source: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/eco_gdp_ppp/AFR

2.1        Government Alignment

Of all the African countries, the South African Government has been able to successfully align their big business into acceptance of NEPAD principles. In fact the Government also leads in the application of NEPAD principles this respect by example. The SA Government is using the best practices and themes of NEPAD in its policies and action. We see this South African Strategic regional agreements undertaken by the South African Government, such as, SADEC Agreement allow for free trade and common markets within the Southern African Region and AGOA which allows for easier access for textile goods from Southern Africa to US Markets, MMTZ (Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia) agreement which allows for the member countries to share preferential custom duty tariffs.

Regional partnerships in water use that South African had jointly initiated are water projects such as Lesotho Highlands Project and the Carbora Bassa Dam; these are examples of joint ventures on water for neighbouring Southern African Countries.

The South African government is actively involved in peace initiatives in Africa, e.g. South Africa was instrumental in bring about peace in the Congo and in uniting rival Hutu and Tutzi ethnic clans in Ruanda. Currently South Africa is jointly keeping peace with other African peacekeepers in the strife torn Liberia.  

2.2        South African Legislations using NEPAD themes

The South African constitution is hailed as one of the most liberal constitutions in the world; it includes major issues on human rights and equality. In fact it can be argued that NEPAD was based on the South African experience. This is probably the reason why; many detractors of NEPAD have unfairly accused President Thabo Mbeki of masterminding NEPAD and making it his vision.

On the contrary, South Africa is sharing their lessons with the rest of Africa.  It is consistent that South Africa leads the culture change. As South Africa matures economically and democratically we will find that the principles of equality, freedom and good governance will continue to reap economic rewards and this will in turn enrich the people which leads to further confidence in these values, until eventually these values become dominant in our country’s culture.

Nevertheless, there are many new legislation have recently been passed or still in draft form, that embrace the themes of NEPAD, such as the new National Environmental Protection Act, 46 of 2003, requires inter alia, that polluters take responsibility for contamination, and local communities and regulators have greater powers in holding major polluters accountable. (DEAT: 2003).  The companies act draft bills (Companies Amendment Bill 2004) has, in its amendments in 2003, many of the recommendations of King 1 and 2 reports on Corporate Governance. (http://www.gov.za/gazette/bills/2004/26095.pdf)

3. Role of South African NGOs

The Black Management Forum (BMF), which is an independent business organisation and the Black Business Council (BBC), a con-federal business association are strongly involved in support initiatives and plans for NEPAD.  The BMF is dedicated to socio-economic transformation within the private sector through management development programmes, black economic empowerment strategies and business networks.  The organisation cultivates attitude, belief, motivation and competency in managers and business leaders.  These programmes and strategies are conducive to the profitable growth of the South African economy.  The BMF is an affiliate of the BBC.  

The BBC represents the interests of business and professional bodies that mainly affect the black business sector.  Its main objective is to foster the acceleration of black business into the mainstream economy.  Both the BMF and BBC work in close collaboration with other business associations to ensure growth within South Africa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and the rest of the African continent. ()

4. State Enterprises that are using NEPAD

South African para-statal enterprises such as Spoornet/Transnet and ESCOM are in the forefront of African Partnerships. With the assistance of the South African Government these state owned companies are strategically focused on using the principles of NEPAD.

1. Spoornet/Transnet:

Transnet/Spoornet have a very big role to play in Africa. Given the poor infrastructure in most African regions and the difficulties with moving goods and resources across Africa, rail links is the best and most convenient mode of transport in Africa..

South African rail utility Spoornet is actively positioning itself to build a company that is strong enough to bring about realisation of the African Renaissance. (Engineeringnews.co.za, 19 November 2003) ()

Transnet's growth strategy is focused on sustainable business opportunities throughout Africa as well as in South Africa itself. This focus lends support to the government's New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). As a state-owned company and a corporate African citizen, Transnet will vigorously pursue business opportunities throughout Africa in support of NEPADs objectives and ideals.

The Group's network of undertakings, contracts and investigations outside South Africa is considerable. The following are some of Transnet/Spoornets undertakings in Africa:

1. Comazar (Pty) Ltd, in which Spoornet is the largest shareholder, is a railway developer, concessionaire and operator active in Africa. Spoornet's co-shareholders are the South Africa Infrastructure Fund, Bolloré of France and the Commonwealth Development Corporation.
2. Transtel is a supplier of satellite and other communication services.
3. National Port Authority offers consultancy services to other African port authorities.
4. The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront (Pty) Ltd (VAW), a wholly owned subsidiary of Transnet, offers consultancy services to other African governments and cities.

In addition Transnet also has various business relationships in the form of bilateral and other agreements in pursuit of opportunities. The Spoornet KMM Investment consortium is pursuing railway concessions in Ghana, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan, Angola and DRC. The Spoornet Unitrans Mvelapandha joint venture is proposing to introduce Road-Railer trailers, designed for use on road and rail, to various southern African markets. ().

2. ESKOM

Eskom is Africa’s largest generator and distributor of electricity and one of the largest in the world. It is a major exporter of power to Africa, where much of its future growth will be focused. Energy will drive African progress in industry, technology and quality of life; Eskom is strategically poised to provide the energy to light up the African Dream.

Eskom’s strategic intent is to be the pre-eminent African energy and related services business of global stature. Eskom has 24 power stations with a nominal capacity of 42,011 megawatts has 316,634 kilometres of power lines spanning the entire country and transporting power to neighbouring countries. Eskom supplies approximately 95% of the country’s electricity requirements, which equals more than half of the electricity generated on the African continent. Further, it is a responsible corporate citizen integrating environmental sustainability and socio-economic improvement into its business and supports the development of an interconnected African grid to encourage co-operation whilst accelerating economic growth in the region.

Considering its reach and intent, Eskom is involved in several projects that illustrate energy for sustainable development. Experiments into solar and wind energy is substantial and in order to show intent, Eskom has purchased 2 wind turbines at a cost of over $2m, which can generate 1mw wind powered electricity per turbine.  (www.eskom.co.za)

5. South African Private Sector embracing NEPAD

With many South African industries dominated by one or two companies and domestic markets nearly saturated, foreign expansion will continue to be an important growth strategy for South African companies in the future. The degree to which that expansion involves investments in other markets on the African continent puts South African companies in a critical position to drive the success of NEPAD in the years ahead. (SARPN: 31 Sep 02).

More than 130 local and international companies and at least 200 business leaders, including the JSE, Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Barclays Bank, Engen, Microsoft, Absa, Sanlam, Coca Cola, PG Glass, Siemens and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, had signed a declaration committing them to supporting NEPAD.(Sunday Times: June 02).

However it is vitally important that the inter-Africa investment is not seen to be one sided, i.e. benefiting South Africa only, it must be in mutually interest of all Major African Industries. In this respect partnerships and joint ventures are key and steps must be taken to encouraging African foreign business into SA markets.

It is inevitable that South African private sector will look at expansion into Africa, but such expansion will require commitment of resources and adoption of the NEPAD principles and best practices prevailing in the EU. We give a brief critical overview of Illovo, Shoprite and MTN. We chose these companies because they represent different industry sectors in the SA Market.

3. Illovo Sugar

Cane Sugar is widely grown in several African States south of the Sahara. Illovo is the largest producer of Sugar in Africa. Based in KZN province of South Africa they contribute to the export 50% of their sugar into USA markets. The group is also a major supplier of sugar to Southern African consumer and industrial markets, particularly in South Africa, Malawi, Zambia, Swaziland, Tanzania and Mozambique. In their strategic vision, Illovo intends to be the leading sugar and downstream products operation in Africa, an increasing global player and a world-class  organisation. They embrace the best Practice of Interdependence and Partnership, i.e. of forging alliance with similar African industries by exchanging technologies, offering advice and creating Joint ventures.  They also include NAPAD in their Group Business strategy. They actively involved in the governments land distribution programme. Recently they signed an agreement with the department of Agriculture to empower local black farmers and to make available their existing land to do so. In fact Illovo has recently been awarded the NEPAD” award, recognising Illovo as “the South African company that has most successfully expanded into Africa”.  ()

2.4.2        Shoprite

Shoprite the largest supermarket chains in South Africa and Africa. Apart from opening branched in several African countries , they have used the NEPAD principle of partnerships and sourcing Africa’s  resources in their supermarket chains. (L Bolin:Posted Wed, 10 Mar 2004)

They have recently signed an innovative agreement with Uganda's coffee growers will soon be providing a much-needed platform on which to further develop the Ugandan coffee industry.

Uganda is the world's eighth largest coffee grower, with the beans supplying a substantial amount of its export revenues. However, the volatile price of the international commodity, combined with a lack of local beneficiation, has meant that the coffee crop has provided little value-added to the country. Most beans are exported directly to international companies, which then process them into various forms of the ubiquitous drink for export around the world at substantially higher prices.

The strategic importance for Uganda lies in its access to retail space in Shoprite's multi-national supermarket chain. Roasting and packing will initially be done in South Africa by the Rwenzori Coffee Company, for distribution through all Checkers stores and Checkers Hypers in South Africa and shortly in the other fifteen African countries in which the company trades.

Shoprite believes self-sufficient facilities and infrastructure in Uganda will boost job creation and GDP growth and fortify the NEPAD initiative (L Bolin;10 Mar 04).

3. MTN Africa

MTN is one of the largest cellular companies in South Africa. They have identified a need to improve communications in Africa. The African telecommunications environment is characterised by challenges such as geographic expanse, population densities, coupled with varying GDP per capita figures and relatively poor infrastructures. With a philosophy of Africans solving Africa's problems, MTN has clearly demonstrated its experience and commitment to the continent by taking on these challenges with positive results.

 MTN International has been forging ahead with its expansion strategy of development and investment into Africa. As a result, MTN has grown from its South African base and now has successful operations in Cameroon, Rwanda, Swaziland, Uganda, and Nigeria.

 

The established quality operations of MTN across Africa are changing the fortunes of economies and its people. MTN South Africa alone has built one of the largest networks in the world, covering over 800,000 square kilometres, while MTN Uganda is now the leading telecommunications company in Uganda and East Africa. ()

4. Global companies – SA as a gateway to Africa

South Africa is uniquely placed as the springboard for African investment by Global Companies. In fact, given the current state of Africa, any international company looking at investing in Africa would choose South Africa. Some International companies are using South Africa as a gateway into Africa as reported in the Sunday Times 09 June 2002, Vernon Ellis, international chairman of Accenture, said his 12.5-billion consultancy company, employing more than 75 000 people worldwide, was using South Africa to move into the emerging stable African market.

Microsoft's Sub- Saharan Africa MD, Mark Hill, said the company was committed to NEPAD. After meetings with Mbeki, Microsoft had donated more than R100-million in software to public schools in South Africa.

Hill said Microsoft had spent R400-million a year establishing offices in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Ghana. (Sunday Times: June 02)

---

4.0        Challenges facing South African Companies

4.1         African Human Resource 

The NEPAD projects aimed at alleviating poverty and increasing education are critical to the success of SA companies in Africa. Current literacy rate in Africa is extremely low and skilled labour is scarce, women are not exposed to the mainstream industries and African professional and skilled citizens generally go abroad where salaries and opportunities exceed that back in their home countries. A seminar on Skills for Africa was informed that 40% of African professionals are living in abroad (mainly US and Europe). The shortage of managers and professionals is holding back investment, restricts efforts for job creation and service delivery. (NEPAD website-March 2003)

This will mean costly salaries for S.A companies to entice professionals to work in some countries high expenses in staff training and development will also prevail.

2. Africans slow to accept NEPAD

It is a fact that not all African leaders and people have accepted the idea of NEPAD. Most of the detractors will oppose NEPAD for various reason, some sinister reasons such as wanting to hold on to power or because they may perceive NEPAD as a neo-colonial package. But there are certain principles that that NEPAD has flouted in its development, the critical one being the non-inclusion of internal stakeholders in developing strategy. 5 African heads of states developed NEPAD. There was little or no indication of wide involvement of African Business Professionals, NGOs and African grassroots. This has been a constant criticism by NEPAD detractors who argue that NEPAD is far too top-down and leadership-driven. The perception is that it has largely been drafted by a few ‘technicians' linked to “South Africa's Department of Finance”, officials from other African governments that have played a leading role in NEPAD, together with “some World Bank officials”. ().

2. Huge Reliance of Foreign Capital to finance the NEPAD initiative.

 It is estimated that the cost of US$64bn /annum, cannot be funded by Africans alone. The success of NEPAD is linked to the global stakeholders coming up with the finance. So far Canada was the first country to support this initiative, by committing $500 million towards the Africa Action Plan.(Susan Whelan

Canadian Minister for International Cooperation).

Whilst they support NEPAD conceptually, other G8 countries are playing the wait-and-see game. USA and Britain advocate that transparency and commitment from African Leaders on Good Governance will be rewarded by development assistance. The current turmoil in Zimbabwe is not helping the NEPAD course either. The ongoing crises in the Middle East and the commitment of their large armies and resources of the rich nations in Iraq and Afghanistan (USA Britain, Japan) indicate that, once again, that there may not be a serious interest in African development. ()

3. Large gap between African Countries in Culture, Politics and Economics.  

While there is a preference for many analysts to treat the continent as if it were a single entity, this is incorrect as there are major differences between countries such as:-

• Language is a major problem, African countries speak a number of different languages, in-fact within a country like Nigeria there are over 30 different languages and over 100 dialects. Also there are different common languages e.g. in parts of central Africa French is preferred, in Northern Africa Arabic is common whilst other countries speak English, Portuguese or Belgian.  This can present major problems in communications
• Economies of the countries are widely different.  the regional statistics show significant variations in the composition of the various economies, the macroeconomic performances, and social development policies and outcomes. For instance, agriculture accounts for only 3% of South Africa’s gross domestic product, while in Zimbabwe it is around 20%. Uganda’s economy is heavily dependent on Robusta coffee production and agriculture accounts for over 42% of its GDP. Botswana, on the other hand, is dependent on diamond extraction, with agriculture accounting for less than 4% of its GDP in 2000 (World Bank 2002).
• There is also the question of size. In 2000, South Africa and Nigeria accounted for 50% of the GDP of the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa—with South Africa accounting for 75% of that proportion.
• Similarly, there are wide variations in social development. The population living in poverty, using national poverty lines, ranges from 25.5% in Zimbabwe to 86% in Zambia.
• Corporate Governance does exist in some form or another in various African countries. However the degree of Corporate Governance varies from country to country. This was attributed to the fact that many of the African economies are in a transitional phase, and are still heavily under the influence of the various heads of state and are still relatively unsophisticated markets. This will mean that the various African countries will have varying levels of adherence to Accounting and Audit Standards.

These differences will make it difficult for South African companies to have a single generic strategy for Africa or to expect that “one size fits all”.

4. The cost of investing in Africa will be higher than other global markets.

In a survey conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers on South African CEOs, 70% of respondents who are “slightly positive” or “neutral” about NEPAD’s impact are less willing to commit resources.  In-fact some CEO’s have indicated that they would be more willing to commit resources in the East where they believe will add greater value to their business.  It is therefore critical that NEPAD is seen to deliver on its mechanisms like peer review, good governance and transparency where there is strong leadership in publicly identifying and criticizing undemocratic, corrupt and tyrannical African leadership.

4.4        Other issues facing S.A companies investing in Africa

Other issues facing S.A Companies who want to invest in Africa:-

• Poor or a lack of infrastructure (in particular transport and telecommunications);

• Corruption (at both government and private business levels);
• High costs involved in conducting business in the various African countries (high start-up costs, including skills training);
• High travel costs and irregular flights into Africa;
• Difficulty in obtaining visas and expatriate quotas;
• High corporate taxes;
• Currency fluctuations;
• Language and culture barriers;
• Government or political interference in decision making;
• Inconsistent or limited sector specific policymaking.

5.0        Conclusion.

The NEPAD initiative has the potential to unlock the development opportunities that exist in Africa for S.A companies.  NEPAD can only enable this by living up to its objectives and standards and by creating actionable agendas that identify and prioritise NEPAD projects. (SARPN:10 Jun 03). In order for all S.A Companies to successfully engage in NEPAD we believe that three specific points need considering by all stakeholders, these are:

• The NEPAD Business Initiative needs to change business leader's perceptions that it is merely a politically run initiative.

• The NEPAD Business Initiative needs to include other countries/regions so that it does not acquire the perception that it is a S.A dominated initiative. The incorporation of these other African businesses will give NEPAD the much-needed credibility amongst the greater African population.
• In view of the above, it stands to reason that with power and business superiority comes responsibility. To would therefore it will become imperative on South African companies to follow the NEPAD principles religiously since their social and ethical behaviour will be very closely monitored by the various stakeholders; SA companies will need to lead the NEPAD business initiative by example.

We conclude that NEPAD presents to Africans opportunities for all sectors of the economy and society to meaningfully contribute to the quest for African development and global sustainability. It is a window of opportunity for Africans to grasp the opportunities presented, to develop our societies, economies and environment - putting our continent on the path to true sustainability and taking our rightful place in the global family of nations. We should not just sit back and wait for this to happen – as Africans we must take ownership of NEPAD as a business prospectus and make it happen by investing our resources, human capacity and equity in this continent we call home.

END (word count: 6539 words)

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