At a business forum held at the British University in Egypt (BUE), Karim Sadek, Managing Director at Qalaa Holdings participated in a panel discussion that addressed challenges and opportunities for investors in Africa.
“Egypt understands the development priorities of African states, and is grappling with similar challenges, such as meeting infrastructure needs and catering to an expanding and young population,” said Sadek. “There is no denying that there are significant challenges associated with investing in Africa but the long-term fundamentals which include readily available resources, improved governance, and the world’s largest working-age population mean that there are also very real opportunities particularly when it comes to the energy and infrastructure sectors.”
Sadek went on to note that the annual infrastructure deficit in Africa today stands at more than US$ 93 billion, of which c. US$ 17 billion per year is needed to redress the existing efficiency gap in power generation.
The conference was attended by government ministers including the Minister of Higher Education, H.E. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar and the Minister of Planning, H.E. Hala Al-Saeed along with leading members of the business community. Tracing back to its roots as a leading African private equity investor, Qalaa has been directly investing in Africa since 2006 with a number of its investments originating in African economies other than Egypt.