Africa is proving to be a favourable market for Indian investment, particularly with more participation from the private sector, a senior Indian official has said.
Shailesh Nathan, Small and Medium Business Development Chamber of India's (SME) Regional Director (MENA) in a statement said that even though the figures may seem not so impressive from the mid 1990s until now, the growth rate of this investment segment is very high.
His statement comes following the Third India Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) held in New Delhi in October where Prime Minister Modi reiterated that his government's interest in Africa was driven by the aim of empowerment, capacity building, human resource development, access to Indian market, and support for Indian investments in Africa.
"The African market cannot be overlooked, he said adding that more and more private sector to private sector trade is happening even though the infrastructure may not be as good as when compared with China," Nathan said.
"There are many inspiring examples of African success stories in small and medium enterprise and the empowerment of youth and women and that is exactly where India would like to join hands with this continent towards sustainable growth and development in the years to come," he said.
Nathan, also President of Diplomats Summit- a forum connecting the public and private sectors- is currently in talks with African trade bodies to bring them to Dubai for the Dubai Solar Show in 2016 to connect them with technology experts and decision makers in this regard.
With an average population of 1.1 billion, Africa's total GDP is worth over USD 2.8 trillion and has been growing at over five per cent every year. With India's trade with the continent worth USD 71 billion a year, it believes Africa will help its economy grow faster and is targeting around USD 90 billion by the end of 2015.
