Kenyan attack could have happened anywhere

THE world has in recent days been transfixed by screaming headlines, waiting for the next Twitter update from Nairobi about the worst mass terror attack in recent times outside of the Arab territories. It has been a very faint silver lining in the midst of a horrific event that, for once, differences of politics, race, creed, nationality and religion have been set aside and millions of people have been united in a common sense of outrage and condemnation of terror attacks — especially against civilian targets.

Kenya is not alone in having been targeted in the past 15 years. It shares that ignominious honour with a host of nations, including economic powerhouses such as the US and UK, yet every time there is a terror incident in Africa, the conversation inevitably turns to the advisability of big business investing on the continent and debates about how safe it is for foreigners to visit and work here.

Post-attack headlines are already trumpeting speculation from international experts about how severely Africa’s investment and travel sectors will be affected, with a predictably mournful forecast that the damage will resound for months — if not years.

This is unfortunate, because it appears to be a narrative that almost exclusively penetrates the post-analysis debates of African terror attacks, whereas long-term investor confidence and a sustained dent in tourism earnings is of much smaller note in the aftermath of similar incidents in developed nations.

In global terms, the timing of the latest attack is doubly unfortunate for Kenya, which is planning to debut on the international capital market with a $1.5bn note that would be Africa’s largest maiden sovereign bond.

So what is it about the Africa of today that perpetrates the notion of questionable prospects in these debates? Is it a hangover from decades past, or an accurate interpretation of the state of play?

It is an unwarranted debate that perpetrates the erroneous impression of Africa being “dark and dangerous”. As recently as 2000, The Economist wrote a long epistle about Africa and labelled it “the hopeless continent”. It has since apologised, and rightfully so, because the world needs to recognise and acknowledge that the Africa of today is not the Africa of 30, 20 or even 10 years ago.

Most sub-Saharan nations are displaying greater political will than ever before to create wealth for countries rather than cronies. They are actively working towards eradicating poverty and establishing industries that allow raw materials to be processed internally to generate greater foreign exchange by exporting manufactured goods. Examples are countries, such as Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda, that projected economic growth of more than 6% at the beginning of the year and are on target to achieve this.

Africa’s economies are growing faster than most of the rest of the world because they were less affected by the recession than Europe and the US. We are taking advantage of that in the right way, by expanding business infrastructure and creating investment opportunities. This in turn creates a favourable environment for hotels to expand into secondary nodes because, like elsewhere in the world, business travel is also the foundation of hospitality in Africa. Hotels worth $100m are under construction in various African nations that will bear the Protea Hotels standard when they open. These hotels will create even more job opportunities in a company that already directly employs about 16,000 people across Africa and has created thousands of additional jobs in the numerous supply chains needed to keep the hotels operating at the high brand standards set by the group.

Rapid expansion in Africa is not a shot in the dark. We are represented in 10 African nations and consider Kenya to be a very exciting market, not least because of the additional business travel that will flow into the country as a result of the oil discovery in Turkana County.

Will the Westgate mall siege bring the development of the Turkana oil fields to a halt? Not a chance. But the speculative fodder for TV talk shows that are merely filling allotted minutes allocated to discussing the latest terror attacks can do real damage to international perceptions of and investment in Africa.

The Westgate siege was brutal and it was shocking, but it could have happened anywhere in the world. It would be a dreadful shame if Africa had to suffer even greater losses because of it.

Bryer is director of sales, marketing and revenue for the Protea Hospitality Group.