Indian Companies Push into Africa

28 October 2010

CEO Manoj Kohli, from Indian telecommunication company Bharti Airtel speaks during a press conference in Lagos, Nigeria, 25 Oct. 2010

From Kenya in the east, to Zimbabwe in the south and Nigeria in the west, India's $ 15 billion Essar group is investing in Africa in businesses ranging from power, steel and mining to telecommunications and construction.

A director at the Essar group, Firdhose Coovadia says when the company wanted to diversify, the growing opportunities in Africa provided the obvious answer. He says though the continent's 53 countries vary enormously, the macro trends are similar.

"You look at what the continent has to offer today in 2010, I think what you will find there is a resurgence of entrepreneurial spirit across the continent clearly," Coovadia said. "Secondly there is an increased willingness and openness to trade, openness to investment, and a commitment by the politicians and regulators that they is no turning back from a cycle of investing and development. This obviously for an investor is that inflection point, between where the continent was as a whole, and where it is likely to be."

In the last five years scores of Indian companies have bought or invested about $16 billion in a range of businesses in Africa. Among them is Bharti Telecommunications whose $9 billion deal to acquire mobile phone operations in 15 African countries this year is the biggest investment by an Indian company.