The COVID 19 crisis is reshuffling the cards around the world and in Africa as well. The true measure of its multiple impacts, essentially negative, will only become clear over time, but we can already anticipate a few windows of opportunity. Both FDI and significant M&As will continue to decline in 2020 under combined effects:

• shrinking international trade flows and a drop in price of the main commodities,

• postponement or delays in the scheduling of major projects across the continent,

• business and/or geographic refocusing already annnounced by leading multinationals,

• lower profits among major investors, which in turn will affect their development budgets,

• uncertainties (health, economic and social) related to the scale of the pandemic on the continent and its rebound,

• weaker domestic consumption – for a while.

African private companies, which generate twice the revenues of multinationals on the continent, will certainly be much weakened and in a delicate cash position: they will depend on the recovery – whether or not driven by the State with external aid of various kinds (cancellation of public debt, restructuring of private debt, special COVID envelopes etc..) -, the assistance of banks, the support of their shareholders and … new industrial or financial partnerships with local players, other African or foreign companies.

Africa has demonstrated its capacity to endure a thousand evils, but also to bounce back faster and faster with a growing awareness that it must play with more weight on the world chessboard. If African champions are not yet part of the global companies, it is not their proliferation that would lead to emergence, but rather the massive growth of SME/SMIs, gradually pumping resources and talents from the informal economy – everywhere in all sectors and trades.

As elsewhere, the new telecom and digital technologies are transforming the various spheres of activity in Africa, allowing, with the growing use of renewable energies, the financial and social inclusion of populations that were previously neglected : a phenomenon that is accompanied by a significant change in mentalities. Inclusion and demographic growth constitute a permanent enlargement of the consumer market base reinforced by the increased purchasing power of the « middle classes » and even more so by B2B clients - mostly African-owned SMEs. Regional trade is developing throughout the continent thanks to a widely shared political will. The abundant reserves of natural resources that can be exploited at a competitive cost continue to attract world powers and majors, which favours employment and the modernisation of infrastructure. Agriculture can be largely stimulated and Africa reduce its dependence on imports of goods and services relatively easily, as other regions of the world have managed to do. African entrepreneurs are long-term investors of the whole value chain, they are confident and committed to their home ground.

In a patchwork of 54 countries a mosaic of sectoral opportunities will emerge for balanced partnerships between African promoters and foreign players. On both sides, it is time to challenge cultural barriers and apprehensions.