Africa is not short of capital, nor is it short of investment opportunities.Β The challenge, according to Sharon Bwanya, Managing Director of Red Couch Advisory, is connecting investors with businesses that are genuinely ready to receive capital.
Speaking at the Botswana Investment Forum 2026 during a Business Talk session on doing business in Africa, Bwanya said the continent continues to face a persistent disconnect between businesses seeking finance and investors searching for credible investment opportunities.
βPart of the work we do involves connecting American investors with opportunities across the region. The irony is that African countries are hungry for capital, while investors are equally looking for opportunities. Yet the two do not automatically meet,β she said.
For Botswana, which is seeking to diversify its economy beyond diamonds, Bwanya said attracting investment would require more than ambitious policy statements.
Investors, she said, want clarity on where opportunities exist and which businesses are positioned to take advantage of them.
βWe know about diamonds. But when we say Botswana is diversifying, investors want to know where those opportunities are,β she said.
Bwanya argued that diversification ambitions must be supported by identifiable opportunities, commercially viable businesses and projects capable of demonstrating their investment potential.
Establishing a credible track record and connecting businesses with investors whose investment objectives align with their proposals, she said, are central to converting investment interest into completed transactions.
Bwanya emphasised the importance of understanding investor mandates before seeking funding.
Different investors, she said, have different expectations regarding deal size, risk exposure, ownership structures and returns.
The same principle applies to impact-oriented investors, whose decisions are not determined exclusively by projected financial returns.
Such investors also want to understand the broader social and economic contribution of a project, including employment creation, poverty reduction and the number of people likely to benefit.
For businesses seeking investment, presenting a compelling proposition requires understanding what matters to the intended investor rather than relying on a generic pitch.
βThose of you involved in investment understand that attracting capital is also about telling the right story. It is about storytelling and presenting a proposition that is tailored to the audience you are addressing,β she said.
Beyond matching capital with opportunities, Bwanya said African countries must also address practical barriers that influence investment decisions.
These include regulatory certainty, institutional effectiveness and reliable infrastructure.
She cautioned against treating Africa as a single investment destination, noting that its 54 countries have different regulatory environments, languages, opportunities and ways of doing business.
βWhat might work in Accra could humble you in Harare. A strategy in Windhoek could offer valuable lessons if you tried it in Gaborone,β she said.
Investors assess markets individually, considering factors such as the rule of law, the effectiveness of courts, permitting timelines and the ease of entering a country.
Even administrative processes such as obtaining a visitor visa, she noted, can discourage prospective investors from travelling to assess opportunities.
Bwanya also questioned whether investment facilitation structures were delivering the efficiency they promise.
She pointed to situations where countries advertise one-stop investment centres but still require investors to navigate multiple offices and procedures.
According to Bwanya, the difference between policies on paper and the actual experience of doing business often determines whether investment interest becomes a firm commitment.
Regulatory uncertainty remains another concern.
Investors, she said, are uncomfortable with unclear timelines and inconsistent guidance on approval processes because such uncertainty makes it difficult to assess costs, risks and implementation schedules.
Other factors influencing investment decisions include the reliability of electricity and water supplies, healthcare systems and workforce quality.
Although Africa has the world’s largest youth population, Bwanya argued that demographics alone do not create an investment advantage.
Young people only become a competitive strength when they possess the education, skills and health required by businesses.
Bwanya further challenged the tendency to frame African economies primarily as recipients of foreign investment.
She argued that domestic businesses are often disadvantaged when competing against international investors.
In some cases, she said, incentives offered to foreign investors are more attractive than those available to local companies, leaving domestic firms struggling to compete even within their own markets.
She pointed to the financing advantages enjoyed by some international investors, particularly Chinese companies that benefit from government-backed financing arrangements and offshore funding channels when expanding into new markets.
This, she argued, can create an uneven competitive environment where local businesses struggle to access the financing required to compete.
For Bwanya, investment strategies should not focus exclusively on attracting foreign capital.
They should also strengthen domestic businesses and create pathways for African companies to become investors and operators across the continent.
She emphasised that Africa’s shift from aid dependency towards investment and trade must be accompanied by stronger domestic investment capacity.
βWe need to move away from dependence on charity and aid and build productive economic relationships through investment and trade,β she said.
The conversation around African investment, she concluded, has focused heavily on capital coming from the East and West, while often overlooking the role Africans themselves can play as investors in their own economies and across the continent.
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