Former Ghana Ambassador Leads Africa Program

LITTLE ROCK — An African economic renaissance from mineral and gas deposits could take off with private investment in the continent, a former Ghanaian ambassador to the U.S. said Tuesday.

Seeking that investment, Koby Koomson will head the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's newly created African Diplomatic Business and Finance Center. Koomson, a 1979 graduate of the college, said the center will draw African ambassadors into candid discussions with investment firms about ways to bring money to the continent.

"We know in developed economies, it is not the government but the private sector that actually provides and creates economic development. The private sector in turn pays taxes to government so the government can then deliver those critical national security services," Koomson said. "It is purely the private sector that must be the engine of growth in Africa."

Koomson and other university officials signed a three-year agreement Tuesday to create the center, which they say will be funded entirely by private donations by venture capital and private equity firms. Koomson, who served as Ghana's ambassador from 1997 through 2001, will head the program out of the university's College of Business.

Koomson said television portrayals of Africa as violence-ridden and plagued by HIV and AIDS do not show the true picture of the continent. He said those images lead to jitters among foreign investors, while demand for African minerals and oil fields continue to attract countries, most recently China.

"The extractive industry is always the reason why businessmen and businesswomen come to Africa. That's what has kept Europe there for a long time. That is what brought Malaysia to the continent and that is what's bringing China," Koomson said. "We hope this center will begin to address issues that are very relevant to the total economic development of Africa ... so that the financial sector will make the necessary funding available to develop the economic areas."

Koomson said those economic areas include improvements in electricity generation, clean water and in manufacturing. He said the investments also could improve agriculture and allow nations to mill and prepare their own food, as opposed to shipping out raw ingredients and purchasing them back from foreign countries at higher prices.

Those investments also will trickle back to all Africans, he said, while not saddling governments with inescapable foreign debt.

University Chancellor Joel Anderson said the center would provide another opportunity for students to think internationally in an economically shrinking world. The university now sits across the street from Arkansas' new Mexican consulate.

"Africa and its progress is near and dear to his (Koomson's) heart and it's something that's important to all of us, wherever we are," Anderson said. "The agreement that we're executing here today can at least in some small but significant way make contributions to the economic advancement of Africa."

Koomson, who has worked as a business consultant since leaving his post, acknowledged challenges do exist despite his hopes. The United Nations estimates 39.5 million people worldwide now have HIV, with 24.7 million living in sub-Saharan Africa. Violence and strong-arm governments flourish in some countries.

Koomson said not all Africa's more than 850 million people and countries suffer from the problems, but they do bear responsibility for each other.

"It is our duty on the continent to get our house in order," he said.