Facebook, Shmacebook: Make Your Money Work in Africa
African entrepreneurs are struggling to get funding. Impact investors, stop checking your Facebook page and listen up
If you're thinking about purchasing stock in Facebook, Walter Lamberson has something to say to you: "Facebook doesn't need your money, invest in Africa instead."
That's the title of his excellent article published today on Good.is.
Lamberson is a partner at Open Capital Advisors, a brokerage service supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in East Africa that focuses on capital "to achieve growth, innovation and social impact."[1]
He says that Facebook's record $16 billion IPO is about half of Kenya's GDP. According to International Monetary Find figures, that's actually more than the GDP of 73 nations, including the African states of Senegal, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Namibia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Zimbabwe.[2]
Let's look at the actual figure. Facebook, with some 3,000 employees, is getting $16 billion. That's approximately the GDP of Gabon, which has 1.5 million people.[3]
Let's put it into further context: Gabon is one of the most prosperous countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and has the region's highest rank on the Human Development Index (HDI).[4] But it's all relative: a third of Gabonese live under the poverty line.[5]
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Reynard is a Justmeans staff writer for Sustainable Finance and Corporate Social Responsibility. A former media executive with 15 years experience in the private and non-profit sectors, Reynard is the co-founder of MomenTech, a New York-based experimental production studio that explores transnational progressivism, neo-nomadism, post-humanism and futurism. He is also author of the blog 13.7 Billion Years, covering cosmology, biodiversity, animal welfare, conservation and ethical consumption. He is currently developing the Underground Desert Living Unit (UDLU), a sustainable single-family dwelling envisioned as a potential adaptation response to the future loss of human habitat due to the effects of anthropogenic climate change. Reynard is also a contributing author of "Biomes and Ecosystems," a comprehensive reference encyclopedia of the Earth's key biological and geographic classifications, to be published by Salem Press in 2013.
