A message from the board
As these lines are put on paper, the world is fighting a global pandemic, and African economies will be hard hit. In a year where the African Continental Free Trade Area – the world’s second largest trade agreement - was supposed to kick-off 1st of July, the African continent will rather see most economies slide into recession, for the first time in 25 years. This will affect most members operating in African markets.
In this situation we have made voicing our members’ concerns in dialogue with the Norwegian government and other relevant stakeholders, a top priority. In a situation where the western world has allocated substantial amounts of money to save the private sector, African economies are not able to do the same. If we want to avoid millions African jobs getting lost (estimates ranging from 20 – 100 million jobs at risk), we would like to challenge the Norwegian government to take a global lead in also supporting the African private sector. When this pandemic is over we need an African private sector who is ready to work and build back better, not bankrupt.
During this time of uncertainty and difficulty, we are at least pleased to be able to report that 2019 was a good year for NABA. We hosted more than 30 member meetings, and organized business missions to Angola, Benin, Ethiopia, South Africa and Tunisia, and hosted lunch meetings with incoming ministers from Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau as well as the UN Special Envoy for Great Lakes and the EBRD bank. The annual Ambassador reception (this time hosted at Equinor) and our start of the year “What to expect” (hosted at NHO) were among the most popular events. We hosted a member lunch for our members in Bergen with Minister of International Development Dag-Inge Ulstein. We co-hosted the Africa programme during the Nor-Shipping. The Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry met our members during the Annual General Meeting (hosted at KPMG) and we helped the government of Ghana to set up their “Ghana – Norway Business Forum” at Export Credit Norway and organized a roundtable on investing in Eastern Africa in connection with the Norfund summer conference. Our investor meeting with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was also a hit. We held member meetings with country focus on Tanzania, Ghana and Kenya. Our Women’s Business Network met twice. For the first time, we also hosted a meeting in Copenhagen where members could meet potential Africa-focused clients in Denmark.
Our flagship event, the Nordic-African Business Summit, was held for the 9th consecutive year, and became our best to date – this year with a special focus on the continent’s two largest economies, South Africa and Nigeria, but also with sector sessions on energy, technology, agribusiness and finance.
Nigeria's Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Financial Times Africa Editor David Pilling and South Africa’s Minister of Small Business Development Khumbudzo Ntshavheni. PHOTO: Mona Ranum
Moderator Øyvind Eggen (Regnskogsfondet), Dag-Inge Ulstein (Utviklingsminister), Ylva Lindberg (Norfund), Erik Solheim (NABA Advisory Board)
Advocacy efforts. We contributed by co-writing a report for the Norwegian think-tank Civita on the topic of business and development. This was launched at Arendalsuka during a NABA co-hosted reception held at our member the Marine Research Institute in Flødevigen - and with a panel including the Minister Dag-Inge Ulstein, advisory board member Erik Solheim and Norfund’s Head of Strategy Ylva Lindberg. In the report, several points for a better business policy was raised – and arguments for a merger of the two concepts business promotion and business development in a more holistic way (aiming at win-win solutions) translated in Norwegian to “næringsfremvikling.”
NABA members with NABA CEO meeting with South African Minister of Trade and Industry at the World Economic Forum in Africa September 2019.
Visibility. Our social media presence continues to grow – currently with more than 7,700 followers on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter combined. This is a 22 percent increase compared to last year’s figures. We also co-authored an op-ed together with President of the World Economic Forum, Børge Brende, in Finansavisen, following our delegation to the World Economic Forum in Cape Town.
We expanded our network by taking part in several relevant meetings, including the Corporate Council on Africa’s US – Africa Business and Investment Forum (Addis Ababa), the Financial Times Africa Summit (London), Business Council for Africa UK’s Annual Debate (London), German-African Energy Forum (Hamburg), Africa Investment Forum (Johannesburg) and the general assembly of the European Business Council for Africa (EBCAM) in Brussels. EBCAM is an umbrella organisation linking ten like-minded associations gathering more than 4000 European investors/companies working in/with African markets.
Before the pandemic hit us all in March, we managed to get a flying start of 2020, including:
Popular business breakfast co-hosted with Innovation Norway where we also launched a NABA report on opportunities in Kenya
Our popular “Africa in 2020 – what to expect?” hosted at Yara draw a full house.
We were tasked to brief His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon in advance of his trips to East Africa
We assisted Innovation Norway in organizing one of the largest business missions to Africa (including 25 member companies) in Nairobi in February
We were part of the business programme in Maputo in February where we moderated a programme session
Together with Aker we co-hosted an investor roundtable with Ghana’s president Akufo-Addo when he was on official visit in Norway in February
Thank you to all members being part of this great community – your support is more important than ever. Last, but not least: thank you to the secretariat and team of volunteers for your strong commitment and consistent hard work. Your actions are affecting more and more people in the world and are indeed making an impact.
The NABA team, Strive Masiyiwa and Svein Tore Holsæther at the 9th annual Nordic-African Business Summit. PHOTO: Mona Ranum
Oslo, 20th of May 2020
Øystein Botillen (Chairperson)
Fredrik Lindblom (Deputy Chair)
Jarle Hammersmark
Elisabeth W. Lokshall
Hege T. Magnus
Ola Nafstad
Hanna Caroline Wirschke
Erling J. Ølstad
Svein Wilhelmsen
Tori N. Tveit