Message from Evans Osemwegie

(Course Convenor)

I am investing in Africa, because Africa is the investment of the century. As I look across the globe right now, I am seeing strong investment opportunities only in Africa. The fundamentals are very attractive, risk has become manageable, volatility has become more stable as African governments have taken major steps towards reformation. Despite, all of these advances, the global financial markets are still placing a very high risk premium on investments in Africa. This has created a gap between perceived risks and actual risks.

The result of this gap in risk perception, has created another gap, which is between price and value. Therefore, from an investor's perspective, the value of an investment in Africa is much greater than the price, this makes returns on investments in Africa on a risk adjusted basis the most superior in the world today and this is likely to continue in the foreseeable future.

Africa has about 1,2 billion people right now, almost the same as China. We saw the global boom that took place when China industrialized. I believe that we will see an economic boom of a greater scale right now as Africa industrializes. It is much better than China for three main reasons:

- It has all the resources that it needs internally, so it does not have to import anything;
- It has a very young and growing population;
- It is rapidly industrializing but its pattern of industrializing is very unusual. This is because Africa has rapidly adopted technology, therefore it is industrializing at a faster pace than other nations and regions have done historically. The overall results of this is greater productivity and productivity, more than anything else is responsible for the wealth of nations.

These three reasons alone gives it a major head start over other nations and regions that previously industrialized. Finally, the African Free Trade Agreement will unlock Africa’s huge internal markets, which will make it almost completely independent from the world and it will be able to negotiate on its own terms.

The main purpose for this course is to gather a group of 100 investors that will be trained in key sectors across the African economy and eventually, they will become co investors with us investing in African assets. Throughout the course, we will supply them with the tools needed to build a strong portfolio of African investments and these will be called ‘’Africa's Industrialization Partners’’, because our investment strategy is to industrialize Africa through these 12 sectors.

This course is designed for serious investors that are tired of the bland investment products currently in the global market.

Our ideal student is a mission driven investor that wants to make extremely good invetment returns on their investments while making a practical difference for millions of people.
This student also recognises that Africa is a complex market and there has to be a learning process and they are commited to learn all they have to learn to succeed in this market.

Africa indeed is an investor's dream land. Many have tried for years to benefit from this continent. However, from our experiences, which have been both - good and bad, we understand the importance of taking time to learn so that the investments will be successful. There are no shortcuts for investing, especially in Africa. It takes a lot of study, discipline and commitment to be successful.

If this is you, then we urge you to join this programme to industrialize this amazing continent.

See you at the other side!