Kwame Senou is the Senior Vice President at Opinion and Public. He says the firm is positioned to deliver tailored marketing services in Francophone Africa to organizations based outside its borders but interested in doing business within the region. In this interview, Senou regrets that Africans don’t know much about the continent as they know destinations in Europe. According to him, the firm is working on platforms for the business community of West and Central Africa, whatever the language, businesses can dialogue with their peers and governments to promote cross border trade and investment. Excerpts
Could you assess the business landscape in 2019?
2019 was a stressful year for businesses. The uncertainty of USA-China trade war, Brexit and a strong dollar, led to a slowdown. In Africa, the electoral year in Nigeria, and the recent border-related tensions really affected businesses. But we also saw the expansion of industrial capacities, the strong growth of many economies in ECOWAS, the relatively stable oil prices that favored oil-linked economies without stressing other economies further. The challenges posed to businesses in 2019 were mainly related to the state of the economy. The digital disruption is also showing a significant impact. While some analysts predicted a recession year, businesses were nevertheless able to resist and sustain through innovation, especially in the digital space. It is common to complain but considering the external factors in 2019, I think businesses performed well in controlling the possible damages.
What do you think are the factors that will shape 2020?
The early signs of 2020 suggest optimism globally. The factors that will shape 2020 for me includes the rush for Africa, where I see more investment from competing global players like USA, China, Europe, Russia and Turkey. The increasing use of technology and data will require more talents and more knowledge services. The misfortune of some startups might drive some businesses to reduce pace and enhance their current model. 2020 will mark the beginning of a new decade. It is usually a milestone used by companies to launch new strategic initiatives, opening doors to partnerships. There will be an increase of strategic alliances. Many companies that expanded in the previous decade will focus on their big hubs and subcontract the other markets. It is a way of keeping their geographic reach without risk. In West Africa, we have seen a wave of people going back to basics to benefit from the debate happening around local content and manufacturing our products. The need for local value creation will be there as a factor. But all these won’t happen without businesses understanding that they are the ones to train their employees and not a formal education system.
African companies and individuals hardly trade and engage in tourism among themselves despite the huge potential across the region, what bottlenecks account for this?
People blame lack of connecting infrastructure, but it is not true. You don’t just make infrastructures to be waiting for people to come and visit, especially when everything is a priority from education to health and security. The real problem is much simpler, we don’t know much about each other as we know of the global destinations we fantasize about like the US, Paris, Dubai or Thailand. The first job to be done is to increase the awareness of our tourist attractions to one another. There’s some strong public relations work that African countries must do; targeting themselves to achieve the level of attractiveness required to fund a trip. I met a Nigerian billionaire in Abidjan in 2018 and he told me that it was his first time ever then. I know a couple of wealthy individuals in Cotonou that swear they will never come to Lagos or Nairobi because it is too dangerous. If you add the artificial language barrier that were built in our minds, I believe promoting and educating ourselves about our destinations is the thing. Nigeria just lifted the visa requirement for all Africans, this is a good move and an occasion to promote the country’s multiple attractions. Nollywood movies now on Netflix and Canal+ (the French paid TV) has made audiences in Francophone to have strong attractions for the Nigerian lifestyle depicted in these contents.
How can Nigerian organizations and businesses who know little about Francophone African countries penetrate the markets?
Learning from previous experiences of expansion into Francophone, I think Nigerian organizations need to get a good understanding of the local context and the agility that comes in such a situation of differences. Though the needs are the same, the values are not. So, to address them, there’s a need of paradigm shift. And the best way to do this is to execute a 2-step process: [1] attract francophone talents in Nigeria and then [2] send them back to execute. Let’s say you are planning to expand, recruit francophone people, get them to work with you in Nigeria, learn and understand your culture, learn from them. It is a critical step. We have observed that poor internal decisions, due to cultural illiteracy were the root causes of some of the previous expansion failures.
Nigeria has closed its land borders for some time now, what are the implications of this on trading in W/Africa?
There’s an extensive coverage of this subject both in local medias and international. Many institutions have concluded that it will harm the ECOWAS partnership, increase poverty and create tensions and distrust between the neighboring countries. The negotiations are happening at a very high level, I hope each country will make the necessary sacrifices to allow this situation to come to an end quickly.
Is single currency possible across W/Africa, what are the advantages of disadvantages?
I think the question should be how strong we want it. Euro was possible in a complex Europe. It should be possible in West Africa. My concern is that I don’t believe in the reasoning behind it. The same way, the Ecowas passport didn’t change the trips between our countries. We need to build regional businesses that make the use of a single currency obvious rather than betting on the currency to deliver the regional trade objectives. The good thing with this project is that if it happens, it will push more enforcement of the regional policies to ensure we reach the performance targets set. Recent developments however suggest that it will be postponed again, with the CFA transforming into ECO without the Anglophone countries. This type of uncertainty will make many to lose faith in the process especially in the business community that always portrays governments and regional institutions as too slow. My point is since we have chosen to go for a single currency, we should make it happen very fast and to allow entrepreneurs plan and enjoy the expected benefits.
How can governments across W/Africa promote policies to enhance business across the region?
Governments should bridge the Francophone-Anglophone divide by enabling the creation of regional bonding institutions like schools and universities, research centers, media and arts companies. The free flow of capital should be accelerated by policies leading to a regional stock exchange or similar mechanisms. Governments should unleash opportunities to attract and promote capital within the region. Allowing it to flow to and from Francophone countries will lead to co-prosperity. But this can’t really happen without infrastructure development. Businesses thrive with good infrastructure. And inter-regional trade cannot be boosted with uneven levels of infrastructure. Connecting infrastructure is much needed, and we must be ambitious. Let’s dream of speed train from Lagos to Abidjan, or 10-lanes expressway from Dakar to Lagos. Business policies should be protected from regime change. We cannot make long term gains if each new government changes the rules of the game. Consistency and security in the rules will reduce risks and build confidence among investors in the region. And again, privileges for the nationals should be extended to all the citizens of the ECOWAS. One more thing: I believe that security in the region will never be the same again with the threat of violent extremism, the rise of inter-community conflicts fueled by discourse of hatred, the rise of inequalities, and the increasing restriction of democratic space in some countries. Clean businesses cannot flourish durably in a climate of hatred, suspicion, crime, broken judicial system, weak security forces and inefficient and unreliable public institutions.
How is your organization positioned to fill gaps and engender cross border transaction?
Our firm’s strategy is built around 3 pillars; a diverse and English-speaking team, a large coverage of the Francophone Africa region with our main office in Abidjan, Ivory Coast and strategic alliances with companies with similarities in all major hubs: Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Morocco. This is to ensure we are best positioned to deliver tailored marketing services in Francophone Africa to organizations based outside our borders but interested in doing business within the region. Initially we served international clients with multi-country focus, but we have had companies from within the region requesting our support in neighboring countries for various requests. Firms like us, capable of delivering in the entire region is difficult to find. We really pride ourselves in uniting the region. Being foremost a full service public relations firm, we have recently done acquisitions to broaden our services from market research to market launch. We are currently working on platforms for the business community of West and Central Africa, whatever the language, businesses can dialogue with their peers and governments to promote cross border trade and investment.
