There were many different risks among the different sectors across Africa as well as a perception gap, stated South African Institute of International Affairs national director Elizabeth Sidiropoulos at the Africa Risk Conference, held in Johannesburg in early August. She, thus, argued that it was important for businesses to develop a social licence in Africa and that offsetting risk was a business and responsible-government issue.

According to an Africa attractiveness survey by advisory firm Ernst & Young, businesses that were already invested in Africa had a far better perception of the continent.

But international aid agency Oxfam South Africa associate country director Pooven Moodley also highlighted the 2013 world economic forum global risk report and stated that inequality was one of the greatest risks in Africa.

“The concept of Africa rising is positive and good economic growth is good for uplifting people from poverty. The challenge with Africa rising is that there are only a few people rising instead of a continent. There are only a few people getting wealthier,” he said.

However, many issues are not only political and lean more towards basic services such as health and education.

Moodley noted that these issues fuelled protest actions and uprisings, adding that there were many conflicts pertaining to resources, such as water and basic commodities, and that these risks needed to be dealt with.

He said that, while the African mining vision was positive and progressive, there were also illicit capital flows from the continent.

Nonprofit, advocacy and campaigning organisation ONE Campaign Africa director Sipho Moyo said the risk in Africa was overstated, but not unfounded, and that a broader narrative, which included opportunities and risks, was needed.

“Africans themselves are beginning to spread positive stories about the continent. Investors in Africa have, for a long time, focused more on the technical risks such as poor infrastructure. There is less focus on political risk, as the technical risks are much more real. Africa has the highest rates of return for foreign investors,” she said.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s official marketing agency Brand South Africa research manager Petrus de Kock said at the conference that the frustration of analysts on the continent was telling a story based on facts.

He said the African continent was fragile and that a government could easily be toppled, adding that socioeconomic and industrial business issues needed to be faced.

“We are often confronted with discourse on political risk. There is political instability when rebels come in. The continent needs a more honest view of what leads rebels to occupy cities. Positive narratives make a difference to perceptions of Africa,” he argued.

Meanwhile, Moyo pointed out that, in spite of geographical risks in some places, Africans were taking charge and investors were focusing more on the middle class than the minerals on the continent.

Sidiropoulos said that it was also essential to highlight the importance of a rising domestic private sector in Africa and that several African countries were investing in and outside Africa.