Success in Africa: CEO Insights from a Continent on the Rise

CHAPTER 8

What About the United States?

I think of Americans when they went to the West. Why did they go? Because it was empty.

Dr. Chris Kirubi, Chairman, International House Limited

Being in Africa doesn’t just make us better in Africa. It makes us better everywhere.

Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO, General Electric

African CEOs talk about the United States often, and at surprising depth. U.S. institutions, economic model, and culture are more top of mind than our proximity, trade, and investment might suggest. African bilateral trade with the U.S. in 2010 was 12 percent of Africa’s total, less than its trade with Europe or China.¹ The stock of FDI from the U.S. into Africa is second to France’s, but is overwhelmingly concentrated behind ...