The 5th Pension Funds & Alternative Investment Africa conference hosted by AME Trade spanning over two days on July 14-15 at ITC Balaclava, saw the Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance Mahen Seeruttun stressing the fact that policymakers, fund administration, and investors are showing a keen interest for private investment to foray into the continent. He made the comment during the launch of the PIA on July 14.
He stressed: “The conference augurs well where it is set against the context of an unflinching IFC as a capital raising and investment platform to help address Mauritius’ core strategy by the Government in the aftermath of the COVID crisis and the war. There is a need for transition in terms of better returns, how and where to invest in digital transformation through equitable growth in the new economy coupled with the accelerated digitisation post-COVID and pension fund to support the breeding of the economy.
The Minister told that Africa’s renewable energy carries huge potential with food safety where there is 65 percent land to feed the world, globally tap into the opportunities offered by a booming continent. Mauritius is expected to unlock opportunities set against the context that after India, Africa is the second largest market for us with 9 percent investment.
“I will keep supporting sustainable investment channels from Mauritius to Africa, inviting investors to do business in the jurisdiction that poses as a mature IFC and ticking boxes for investment. Investors are assured of entering a credible fund jurisdiction in terms of seamless services offered such as the domiciled fund administration with fund managers using the jurisdiction for funds domiciled in other countries with several facilities offered for the efficient fund administration coupled with the Variable Capital Companies launched as an attractive structure for several types of funds,” he told.
On his part, the Executive Director, Financial Services for AFC Sanjeev Gupta terms the current environment as a profound period in Africa’s history where the future has to bind hands together to ensure that the continent manages its own affairs in the last few years.
“The situation has been complicated by the war and if Africa has to be resilient and grow independent, it has to grow its own capital with the conference showcasing Africa’s own savings has to be deployed into its fund and investment,” he added.
Managing Director at ABSA Mauritius Ravin Dajee observed: “The conference will help Mauritius pose as a corridor for investment in Africa where it can play a bigger role to discuss the funding gap and decreasing returns coupled with challenges in terms of perception and the industry characterised by inflation, interest rate, skills gap, and geography. Risks in Africa include a depreciating currency chasing high returns with private assets.”
Director at the Economic Development Board (EDB) Vinay Guddye made a presentation on the evolution of the local economy right from the time of the independence, shifting from a mono-crop economy to diversifying into the sugar sector and tourism, eventually seeping into the financial services. He observed that a new sector cropped up every new decade which ushered in a rise in GDP.
In the context of managing perceptions in Africa, there is a need to convince institutional investors and funds to structure on the continent, he argues. “There is a gap on the market in terms of promoting funds on the continent linked to leaders of finance and this is where the MIFC can play its role. The local jurisdiction has several attributes such as investment structure and fund mitigation, highly skilled workforce set to be back on the path of recovery coupled with offering a bilingual mediation centre from Mauritius in terms of structuring.”
“The IFC has exited the EU and FATF list, offering several advantages such as businesses can be set up in two hours, free repatriation of profit, no foreign exchange control while it has a stock exchange offering a multicurrency trading platform.”
He added that the value leveraged by Mauritius to Africa constitutes USD 82 Billion. Guddye also pinpoints the post-Covid forecast with a jump from 4.6 percent GDP in 2021 poised to reach 7.2 percent in 2023.
