Mr Zemedeneh Negatu, Co-founder & CEO CBE Capital said at the AIM summit in Dubai the following: "Africa has a lower debt default rate than any other emerging market. But, according to a Bloomberg report, Africa pays $75 billion more per year in “prejudice premium” borrowing costs compared to others. This has to change."
I have a solution for the change, and the work of esteemed professionals such as Thebe Ikalafeng (Founder, Brand Africa), Gina Din (Founder & Executive Chair, Gina Din Group) and Moky Makura (Executive Director at Africa No Filter) have shown it.
It is a reputation and branding problem.
How about investing a small share of that 75B$ prejudice premium in seriously managing the reputation. The report, titled The Cost of Media Stereotypes to Africa, conducted by Africa No Filter and strategic advisory firm Africa Practice, argues that biased media coverage of the continent affects economic development by increasing its perceived risk profile.
As everyone is busy with the idea of the African Union to establish an Africa Credit Rating Agency, I argue that this will have limited effectiveness as long as we do not seriously managing the reputation of the continent "through the ethical and trusted delivery of information" at scale.
It means empowering our think tanks to publish more, our academics, our institutions to share more data, and build narratives that paint an unbiased picture. This ultimately requires, world standard African platforms that can command massive reach.
A report by Africa No Filter, in partnership with the Africa Center New York and the University of Cape Town, sheds light on how the world’s leading news outlets portray Africa. The report found a lack of variety in the topics covered. Africa’s stories were most often dominated by negative themes like poverty, corruption, and political issues.
Concerning is another report into how African media covers the continent, that found that over 80% of the stories Africans read about other African countries were hard news - mostly negative, event-driven reports on elections, crises, and conflicts. How to be surprised?
Despite a growth in confidence in the continent, the share of African brands in our 2025 Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands ranking has crashed to a historic low of 11%, down from a peak of 25% a decade ago and from 14% last year.
The data proves one thing, the information landscape around Africa is gloomy and dark. It is that information landscape that feeds analysts and experts on African matters.
To change that, we need PR, done by Africans for Africa. We don't need the mercenaries who roam the continent after modest careers in their western countries, charging top dollar or euro and using their privileges to seduce naive leaders still convinced more than 6 decades later, that they know better.
It is over, and we know what's better, because for us, it is not business, it is family.
