When Sir Sam Jonah speaks, Africa’s business community listens.
Last Friday at the Global Business Forum in Accra, the renowned Ghanaian business executive said what many African investors had whispered in private but feared to say in public.
He said mistreatment of Africans investing on the continent was driving African capital to London and Dubai. He said xenophobic attacks and sustained state agency harassment of African investments were a threat to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
And he alleged, from personal experience, that his significant real estate investment in Nigeria had been subjected to sustained harassment by state agencies, while Ghanaian workers on the project endured treatment similar to xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
These are grave allegations made by a man who has invested across the continent, and who holds Nigeria, as he put it, “in high regard and in whose promise I have long believed.”
The Daily Graphic believes every African government, and especially Nigeria and South Africa, must take this warning seriously.
Because Sir Sam Jonah is not just talking about his own investment.
He is talking about the future of AfCFTA.
For decades, African governments have rolled out red carpets for foreign investors.
We have offered tax holidays to European companies, free land to American firms, and special courts for investors from China.
We have flown to London, Davos and Dubai to beg for foreign direct investment.
Yet, an investor from Ghana, Kenya or Senegal who tries to invest in a fellow African country is often treated with suspicion, envy and hostility.
He is harassed at the port. His permits are delayed.
His staff are denied work permits. His investment is suddenly subjected to endless inspections by state agencies.
Sometimes, his workers are physically attacked.
This is the painful irony: it is often easier for an African to invest in Europe than to invest in Africa.
Sir Sam Jonah’s experience is not isolated.
Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has spoken about the difficulties of investing outside Nigeria.
South African companies in Nigeria have faced boycotts.
Nigerian traders in Ghana have had their shops locked up.
Ghanaian traders have been expelled from elsewhere.
Xenophobic violence in South Africa has repeatedly targeted African migrants, looting and killing fellow Africans while we all chant “Africa Unite.”
How can we build intra-African trade when we attack intra-African investors?
African capital is already fleeing.
According to the African Development Bank, Africa loses billions annually in capital flight, much of it parked in financial centres in London, Dubai, Switzerland and Mauritius because investors feel safer there than home.
We complain about lack of investment, but we harass those who dare to invest.
The African Continental Free Trade Area is the most ambitious economic project Africa has undertaken since independence.
A market of 1.4 billion people, with a combined GDP of over $3.4 trillion.
The promise is to increase intra-African trade from about 15 per cent to over 50 per cent, create jobs and lift millions out of poverty.
But AfCFTA is not just about removing tariffs. It is about creating a safe, predictable and fair environment for cross-border trade and investment.
What is the point of a free trade area if a Ghanaian investor’s property can be demolished in Lagos because he does not have the right political connections?
What is the point of a free trade protocol if a Nigerian trader’s goods are seized in Accra because of arbitrary standards enforcement?
What is the point of free movement of people if an African worker can be beaten up in Johannesburg for being African?
Sir Sam Jonah was right to call on African governments to protect African investors and workers as zealously as they court foreign investors.
Protection must mean legal protection, physical protection and regulatory fairness.
If Sir Sam Jonah’s allegation of sustained harassment by state agencies in Nigeria is true, the Nigerian government must investigate it transparently and resolve it.
Nothing will discourage Ghanaian and other African investors more than seeing one of Africa’s most respected business leaders frustrated in Nigeria.
Similarly, Ghana must examine its own record.
Our recent history of disputes with Nigerian traders does not give us moral high ground.
Sir Sam has spoken the uncomfortable truth. African governments court foreign investors but frustrate African investors.
Until we reverse that, our capital will continue to build London and Dubai, not Lagos and Accra.
AfCFTA cannot be built on slogans. It must be built on protection, fairness and African dignity for Africans.
