By Samir Bouzidi, Ethnomarketer & international expert in mobilizing African diasporas. Committed entrepreneur – founder of the solidarity startup "Impact Diaspora".
If the African diasporas were an African power, they would be in terms of GDP the equivalent of Ghana or even Morocco by their financial transfers and all their contributions combined (investments, real estate, tourism ...). Today, it is undeniable that the socio-economic weight of the latter, the stability of its financial flows with in particular its countercyclical virtues are good for the continent  even though the real potential of these tens of millions of African migrants and their descendants remains largely misunderstood and inexhaustible...

This is the whole meaning of the new "diaspora round" which tends to erect diasporas as strategic partners or even "new oil" for African countries in need of economic sovereignty and inclusive development... In these particularly calamitous times, necessity is more than ever law! And after having contributed so much to growing their families through generous transfers (80 Billion USD in 2019), African diasporas are now eagerly invited to develop the economy of their country of origin through the multidimensional contributions that characterize them: investments, savings, tourism, return of high skills (doctors, engineers...), soft power...

The difficult learning of investment agencies

And on the front line are now public investment agencies strategically confronted with more qualified and endowed but more demanding "neodiasporas".   For the time being and in the absence of a structured approach, government agencies are trying tactical operations targeting economic diasporas not without deploring very mixed returns of impacts  . Because as for oil, it is necessary to take the time to study the potentials and  know how to target under penalty of drilling next door ... But the majority of APIs (public investment agencies) have for the moment been content to adopt vis-à-vis the diaspora, the same approaches, rules and processes as those in force for FDI! In a word, they have not taken the measure of building a structured approach dedicated to diaspora direct investment that is not just a simple declination of the FDI "offer". "...but diaspora investors are very different from those we usually see on FDI, in terms of profiles, means, decision-making processes and aspirations...In this segment, there is a learning cost that APIs are starting to integrate! "  notes Samir Bouzidi, CEO of Impact diaspora, a startup specializing in engagement 2.0 of African diasporas;

Differences between a foreign investor and that of the diaspora?

Because yes, economic diasporas have their singularities that the countries of origin all too often underestimate;  in the first place, these children of the country know more subjectively and from the inside  the local ecosystem via their families, the testimonies of their fellow human beings and regular trips to the country, hence a certain weighting to the decision or even a wait-and-see attitude. They themselves are rarely entrepreneurs in their host country and precisely the investment in the country of origin is an opportunity to give a new meaning to their career (and their life) or even to better live their dual belonging while demonstrating their social success! Also, they often depend only on their own savings that they do not have the means to lose which explains average investment tickets below 50,000 euros ... On large investments, they tend to position themselves more as influencers, specifiers and/or technical partners. Finally, our observations conducted on a dozen countries in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa show quite clearly the preferences of diasporic entrepreneurs for sectors naturally oriented towards  the international (ICT, export, alternative tourism, business advice ...) and / or with a strong societal impact (ICT, agriculture/agri-business, leisure & cultural industry, social economy...)

To establish themselves sustainably with their diaspora, APIs therefore have an interest in conceptually integrating all these specificities and respecting the chain of engagement specific to this economic diaspora at the cost of a structured approach. Starting by satisfying the first key need of the latter which, well before the financing and the search for the trusted partner, aims to identify and mature a concrete opportunity in the country of origin. And in the absence of reliable economic and financial media in most African countries, APIs should not hesitate to compensate for this structural lack by producing and distributing content in line with the needs, codes and technical standards of the diaspora...

See you on November 3rd...

All this program and other will be developed during the videoconference around the "Better understand and better mobilize the diaspora!" reserved for African APIs, on November 3rd. A conference-training initiated by Impact Diaspora in partnership with Deloitte, LAfricaMobile, Finacialafrik, GIZ and the RIAFPI network of public investment agencies in French-speaking Africa ( + info: https://www.financialafrik.com/2020/10/02/conference-formation-la-mobilisation-des-diasporas-au-programme-des-agences-publiques-africaines-dinvestissement/ )