US President Barack Obama said US companies have pledged $14bn (£8.3bn) of investment in Africa in areas such as energy and infrastructure.

The announcement came at the first US-Africa Leaders Summit, attended by over 40 African heads of state.

The summit is an effort to strengthen US ties with Africa as China increases its African investments.

Mr Obama will also host a dinner for African leaders at the White House in Washington this evening.

The deals announced on Tuesday included a $5bn partnership between private-equity firm Blackstone and Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest businessman, for energy infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as more investments in Mr Obama's Power Africa initiative.

According to the White House, Power Africa received an additional $12bn in pledges towards its effort to develop energy supplies on Africa through a mix of investment and state involvement.

The World Bank announced a $5bn investment in Power Africa and General Electric said it had committed $2bn to help boost infrastructure and access to energy.

"We gave it to the Europeans first and to the Chinese later, but today it's wide open for us," said General Electric chief executive Jeff Immelt.

Mr Obama also said that the US would offer an additional $7bn of financing through the Doing Business in Africa (DBIA) Campaign, bringing the total new US commitments to investment in Africa announced on Tuesday to $33bn.

The three-day summit ends on Wednesday.
Source: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28668533

moneybag100: US President Barack Obama said US companies have pledged $14bn (£8.3bn) of investment in Africa in areas such as energy and infrastructure.

The announcement came at the first US-Africa Leaders Summit, attended by over 40 African heads of state.

The summit is an effort to strengthen US ties with Africa as China increases its African investments.

Mr Obama will also host a dinner for African leaders at the White House in Washington this evening.

The deals announced on Tuesday included a $5bn partnership between private-equity firm Blackstone and Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest businessman, for energy infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as more investments in Mr Obama's Power Africa initiative.

According to the White House, Power Africa received an additional $12bn in pledges towards its effort to develop energy supplies on Africa through a mix of investment and state involvement.

The World Bank announced a $5bn investment in Power Africa and General Electric said it had committed $2bn to help boost infrastructure and access to energy.

"We gave it to the Europeans first and to the Chinese later, but today it's wide open for us," said General Electric chief executive Jeff Immelt.

Mr Obama also said that the US would offer an additional $7bn of financing through the Doing Business in Africa (DBIA) Campaign, bringing the total new US commitments to investment in Africa announced on Tuesday to $33bn.

The three-day summit ends on Wednesday.
Source: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28668533

Obama has sold out. His platform has been to help latinos and lbgt. He distances himself unless he can be predatory. He is a puppet.

Why Africa is giving their land to NON Africans (indigenous or diasporic) is beyond me! See this thread https://www.nairaland.com/1844526/africa-beware-president-obama-unfortunately

Neocolonialism

freeafrica365:

Obama has sold out. His platform has been to help latinos and lbgt. He distances himself unless he can be predatory. He is a puppet.

Why Africa is giving their land to NON Africans (indigenous or diasporic) is beyond me! See this thread https://www.nairaland.com/1844526/africa-beware-president-obama-unfortunately

Neocolonialism

But now China have made him known how important Africans are.

moneybag100:

But now China have made him known how important Africans are.

So true.

Chinas emergency in the world stage would be counted as one of those historical dynamics that changed africa for the better beyond the shackles of Europe.

One of the reason I favour multipolar world .

Those "investments" are coming with bombs.

More Libyas in Africa soon!

moneybag100: US President Barack Obama said US companies have pledged $14bn (£8.3bn) of investment in Africa in areas such as energy and infrastructure.

The announcement came at the first US-Africa Leaders Summit, attended by over 40 African heads of state.

The summit is an effort to strengthen US ties with Africa as China increases its African investments.

Mr Obama will also host a dinner for African leaders at the White House in Washington this evening.

The deals announced on Tuesday included a $5bn partnership between private-equity firm Blackstone and Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest businessman, for energy infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as more investments in Mr Obama's Power Africa initiative.

According to the White House, Power Africa received an additional $12bn in pledges towards its effort to develop energy supplies on Africa through a mix of investment and state involvement.

The World Bank announced a $5bn investment in Power Africa and General Electric said it had committed $2bn to help boost infrastructure and access to energy.

"We gave it to the Europeans first and to the Chinese later, but today it's wide open for us," said General Electric chief executive Jeff Immelt.

Mr Obama also said that the US would offer an additional $7bn of financing through the Doing Business in Africa (DBIA) Campaign, bringing the total new US commitments to investment in Africa announced on Tuesday to $33bn.

The three-day summit ends on Wednesday.
Source: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28668533

can anybody notice the focus on power infrastructures, i think the main focus of this summit was Nigeria.

SirShymex: Those "investments" are coming with bombs.

More Libyas in Africa soon!

For you and @moneybag100

While officials and dignitaries gathered Monday for the first day of the White House-hosted U.S.-A­frica Leaders Summit, leaders of nonprofits organizations, academia and other groups from Africa and the United States held an alternative conference a few blocks away at Howard University.

“We wanted to create a space where citizens and activists in human rights, climate justice, corruption, peace and conflict resolution could come to gather and propose alternative policies to official U.S. and Africa policy,” said Anita Plummer, 31, one of the organizers of the Empowered Africa summit, whose participants included Oxfam, the NAACP, the United Steelworkers and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker peace foundation.

A professor of international affairs at Spelman College in Atlanta, Plummer became interested in African issues after spending time in Rwanda and recognizing that many of the problems there were the same ones she saw growing up in Baltimore as an African American.

With the focus of the official summit centered on economic interests, Plummer said, issues such as good governance, democracy and human rights fell to the side. In April, civil society leaders addressed an open letter to President Obama asking for a spot at the table and a chance to weigh in on issues such as economic and social justice alongside the business deals that are expected to be discussed by heads of state. After the letter, which was signed by a long list of African and U.S. groups, was sent, it was announced that a civil society forum hosted by Secretary of State John F. Kerry would be included on the first day of the conference.

Representatives from the State Department said they had plans to discuss civil society since the beginning.

“It’s a false choice — you cannot discuss economic growth without discussing human rights, corruption, and transparency,” Will Stevens, spokesman for the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, said in response to suggestions the summit chose economics over rights issues.

By the time they learned about Kerry’s event, Plummer and other Empowered Africa organizers had started to plan their alternative, intergenerational forum.

“I think it’s great they’re hosting an event,” Plummer said of the official civil society meeting. “But is it open? We don’t know who was invited, and there wasn’t transparency in the process. Hopefully it was meaningful and they did critically address the official policies, but we won’t know until they release their findings.”

During his remarks at the official forum, streamed online, Kerry said, “Empowered civil society was the foundation of every successful democracy here in the United States, in Africa and around the world, because in the end, our most enduring relationships, most consequential relationships, are not with one particular government at one moment in time.”

Of the dozens of participants at Howard University on Monday, some of whom flew in from Africa, many said the White House summit should have engaged ordinary citizens at a deeper level.

“We need to make sure the benefit is a two-way thing and not exploitative,” said Brenda Mofya, 39, an Oxfam policy adviser who works in the liaison office with the African Union. “It needs to be a dialogue of peers, and people need to admit they’re not pure and address issues of equality.”

Mofya said she would wait to see the results of the Obama-led talks, noting that African leaders had been summoned to similar conferences in countries such as China and India in the past but that the leaders of the host nations rarely made their way to meetings they’d been invited to in Africa. Mofya came from Addis Ababa, Ethi­o­pia, and spoke on panels throughout the day. Panels addressed subjects such as how to make dialogue between Africa and the United States inclusive, rising inequality and corruption, trade unions’ role in democracy, and climate change’s effects on social justice.

The event’s theme of challenging the official summit’s agenda seemed to resonate with some African immigrants in the city.

Alam Geye, 35, of the District, was at work Monday driving a taxi, but he planned to participate in a protest Wednesday calling on heads of state to put good governance first.

“Most African leaders are corrupt. They care about themselves and their power, not their people,” he said. “The U.S. is hosting the summit, and I’m Ethio­pian American and I don’t support it at all. They’re doing bad things in Africa. Why is [the U.S.] doing business with them?”

Geye, who moved to the United States more than 13 years ago, said that although the official summit might increase awareness of African issues, he wanted to see a more democratic, “people not leaders” approach.

At both the official and alternative conferences were representatives from the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union in Harbel, Liberia, a city whose name is derived from the names of the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. and his wife.

“We’re of the conviction that they’re not aware here of what it is like to be a worker in Africa with so few workers’ rights when it’s so hard to organize,” said Abel Ngigle, 42, one of the union’s founders. Ngigle, who said he and fellow union members wanted to spread their message to those in charge abroad, said he was optimistic about both summits.

Mofya said that a genuine dialogue required the United States to be seen as upholding standards of equality, while recognizing its own difficulties with economic and social inequality.

“What’s compelling is that we’ve seen the challenges that the U.S. is facing, and they’re the same problems we have been experiencing in Africa for some time,” she said. “It’s not always what does the U.S. have to teach Africa — sometimes it’s what they can learn from Africa.”

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/alternative-african-summit-challenges-the-official-one/2014/08/04/bac14f52-1bfe-11e4-ae54-0cfe1f974f8a_story.html
Author: Karen Chen August 4

ok






Davido finally addresses beef with Wizkid, says he was upset about Wizkid's shade

>> http://www./entertainment/davido-finally-addresses-beef-with-wizkid/

see them

Blacks depending on the whites since 1204

They keep stealing from us and still give us peanuts


and we are happy

SMH

Africa Need to Wisen up quick

Na same way e go go. We no dey feel am.

This is good.

overhypedsteve: can anybody notice the focus on power infrastructures, i think the main focus of this summit was Nigeria.

not the first time bro. The money goes one way - straight to 'their' pockets.

The only true developments are the ones we do for ourselves.

___

Good one there. . .

moneybag100:

But now China have made him known how important Africans are.

lol important?

foreign companies raping the continent daily and using the brainless leaders on a geopolitical chessboard you call that important?
Only African leaders will go to America in droves for a summit. you wont see Asia or other continents doing the same.

why cant they hold the summit in Africa?. Instead they were all summoned like rats to the US and you call that importance.

Importance my foot

Exploitation.??

Afrocatalyst:

not the first time bro. The money goes one way - straight to 'their' pockets.

The only true developments are the ones we do for ourselves.

let us be optimistic this time since they re going to be privately funded, i am very sure there wont be a free for all money spree

What are they expecting in return? I prefer China to US of A.

To think that $20 billion missed in Nigeria... Nigeria and Nigerians should be ashamed of the leaders they have voted for..

This is a shame on Africa... Too bad Africans don't see it as a shame.

It should have been an "AFRICAN SUMMIT".. No one gives $14B for free not even to help for free.

Anyone that doesn't see the Bible as a SCRIPT and other holy books as a script is a FOOL.

This is the time of four horsemen.. They have unleashed it on Africa.

Death
Famine
War
Conquest/Pestilence

But then all of u ar as ignorant as them. Cos I've been reading through to see if any of u will mention the perilious epidemic that is ravaging us now, all u people did is to argue if they US is better than china or not while forgetting that if EBOLA wipes us all out, who will now enjoy the investment U people ar killing ur selves over. They shud forget about their useless investment and assist us with a cure for ebola, we don't need their investment, we have been doing ok without them all these while, pls let's not misplace priorities now

Yungwizzzy: They keep stealing from us and still give us peanuts


and we are happy

SMH

stealing what from you?

ceemere: But then all of u ar as ignorant as them. Cos I've been reading through to see if any of u will mention the perilious epidemic that is ravaging us now, all u people did is to argue if they US is better than china or not while forgetting that if EBOLA wipes us all out, who will now enjoy the investment U people ar killing ur selves over. They shud forget about their useless investment and assist us with a cure for ebola, we don't need their investment, we have been doing ok without them all these while, pls let's not misplace priorities now

you are loosing it. This thread is not for Ebola. Who said that they are not aiding you in the fight against Ebola? Smh

overhypedsteve: let us be optimistic this time since they re going to be privately funded, i am very sure there wont be a free for all money spree

so be it.

kmariko: Chinas emergency in the world stage would be counted as one of those historical dynamics that changed africa for the better beyond the shackles of Europe.

One of the reason I favour multipolar world .

\
LOL.

Ain't you a happy camper knowing that another colonial master is out to colonize Africa again.

The Chinese do not run charity organizations. Ask the Phillipines.

He who goes borrowing goes sorrowing. The Chinese do not take prisoners.

When is any African country going to encroach into other countries? Or are we better off and
more comfortable being economically r@ped by any willing nation in whatever guise they deem fit?

For Nigeria to progress,she needs to build her own infrastructures. Make energy readily available.
Then create enabling environment to make inflow of cash easy but outflow extremely difficult.
Eg. It is very easy to wire fund and buy $500k property in USA. But then try wiring $10k out of USA.
You go speak grammar tire when it comes down to it. Every LE (IRS especially) will know and wait for your Income tax return
declarations to rope you in.

Any investment that does not involve production/manufacturing of goods will end up being a drain in the economy.
MTN is a foreign investment. Right? The foreign construction firms that pulled Houdini with Imo State mobilization fund
is one of the foreign investors. The song about attracting foreign investment to Nigeria has become stale.



/

I still find it had to understand why African leaders don't realize the west is only interested in investing for profits to further underdevelop Africa in the long run. There are not here to help Africa but to scoop returns on investment then cart away the money to their countries. When will African leaders get this?.
Not that I'm against investment but this current set up doesn't profit us in the long run.
Africa cannot develope without investment in grassroots science!.

Why are you people so cynical? Africa obviously needs the investment to build infrastructures and create jobs. I know Nigerian companies and government complains all the time that America don’t do business in Africa, so they created a summit to match American businesses and African businesses and government and you still complain. China is in Africa, you complain about their quality and their unwillingness to transfer knowledge. Africa needs to stop complaining and create a viable environment that would attract investment. The global market place is competitive. Nigeria is in competition with the likes of Mexico, India, Malaysia and Vietnam. These countries have an enabling environment to attract investment. They have better infrastructure, stable government, and lower risk classification. We better get with the game of we wont progress as a nation.

____