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A personal introduction to Africa Invest In the summer of 2005, I became increasingly concerned about predictions of orphan numbers in sub-Saharan Africa. Major international agencies were disputing orphan number predictions between a range of 12 and 19 million, numbers that were worse than any war, ever. I am 46 years old, and from a child I have only ever seen pictures of Africa that rotate around disease, famine, war and corruption. Not surprisingly, to developed countries, Africa is an embarrassment, as we wonder how she will ever take her place as the final piece of the global economic jigsaw puzzle. In my experience, the overwhelming majority of people I meet share my views that giving has failed Africa, that political and charitable initiatives have actually changed little. So I decided to go and see for myself to try and answer my key question – why is it that Africa never gets better? I asked a family friend, well versed in African issues, to recommend a country for me to visit and see for myself why Africa does not work and where poverty, famine and disease are endemic. He recommended Malawi, one of sub-Saharan Africa’s poorest countries and one of the 12th poorest countries in the world, with an average annual income of £57 (yes, £57 per annum). On arrival in Malawi, I determined to visit the rural areas where 85% of the population lives and where poverty is rampant. So I visited villages comprising of mud huts with thatched roofs, where AIDS victims lie out on mats during the day, dying as the children play and jump over them, and chickens and goats running free to create an overwhelming picture of chaos. These villages have no money in circulation; they rely entirely on subsistence agriculture. They have limited access to fresh (uncontaminated) water; they have no electricity, no sanitation, extremely limited education and no health care. I visited one such village, called Dwambazi, which sits beside the shore of Lake Malawi, one of the world’s largest fresh water lakes, which forms part of the African Rift system. Here I met a man called Pastor Wilson, who had an A4 black book in which he had drawn lines of rows and columns that named the 260 orphan children, malnutritioned children, AIDS sufferers and the very elderly, who had no access to food and were starving. His original list can be seen at www.cruim.com/africalist Personally, I was deeply moved because, as a parent, I could easily understand how the names of my children could be on this list. It was a list of desperation and desolation. I returned to my hotel and decided to set up a UK charity, called ‘Pastor Wilson’s List’, and invite wealthy people to take 20 children or elderly people at a time off this list and place them into feeding programmes, which we would establish. However, I had some niggling doubts about Dwambazi village, and so I returned there to ask the villagers why they were not working their land. They replied to say that, as it was August, there was nothing they could do – the rains would not arrive until November. I then pointed to Lake Malawi that was right next to their land and suggested that they should be irrigating their land from the lake. Their response was that without money how could they possibly afford irrigation systems that need pumps and pipes and diesel? ‘Fair point’ I thought, and returned to my hotel where I picked up their national newspaper and looked at the jobs vacant section. There were no real jobs, just jobs working for the government or international aid agencies or the EU or the British High Commission, etc. It then dawned on me what was really going on in Malawi. The moment I left the capital city the roads were practically empty. I realised that Malawi does not actually have an economy, that the private sector was so small so as not to be noticed and that, without an economy, how could she ever grow to be independent of donor aid? Over a glass of wine, I began contemplating the reality of Africa and decided to revisit Dwambazi. I went there to do a deal, to ask them if they could create sufficient land to enable me to justify irrigation systems and everything else you need to create a farm e.g. irrigation systems, working capital, roads, storage, accommodation, clever farmers, etc. May I say, at this point, that I am the son of a Baptist minister, and that there is zero farming history in my family (although, as my Dad was Irish, it has amused me that one of my crops in Malawi is potato). The Dwambazi chief organised 120 hectares of land, which I rented on a 10 year lease and Africa Invest was born. As we built the farm, we created the feeding programme that turned Pastor Wilson’s list into a register for our feeding programme. Those on the list are fed a nutritional porridge seven times a week. It’s really difficult to explain the emotions of seeing children so excited about the food, it is just incredibly moving to witness. I had no idea as to whether this venture would be profitable, although I knew as an imperative that without a substantial return on capital my attempt to resolve the plight of the rural poor of Malawi would fail. I have been blessed in drawing together an exceptional executive team who have created a tremendous backbone to Africa Invest and it is with great pleasure that I can tell you that we have not failed, that cru has invested its own money, circa £2million, into commercial agriculture in Malawi and that our forecast return on capital is in the region of 30 - 40% per annum. If you were to visit one of our farms now you would see a transformed local economy, with a bustling, weekly market. Investment is transforming the rural economy. Giving has failed Africa, investing can transform her. I would like to conclude the following:
I appeal to you as a parent, grandparent, great grandparent or future parent to make an investment that both serves your investment objectives and transforms the finances of some of the poorest people in the world. Start investing, stop giving. Believe me, this is the only way to transform Africa. Do join me and make a truly wonderful investment. Yours sincerely, CEO |
