For Africa, it helps to have friends like Russia!
Chief leaders and Governments within Russia continue to be extremely engaged with creating a mutually beneficial commitment to Africa. Predominantly in the past Russia has steadily resumed to Africa. An interesting fact I found was that Russia wrote off African sovereign debts amounting to $11.3 billion from the years 2005 to 2012. This led to the Debt-for-development initiative where Russia provided roughly $50 billion for education and anti-malarial programs targeting nations across Africa.
Added to this is the opinion that foreign assistance doesn’t make for a full partnership; people do. Almost 10,000 African scholars are studying at Russian higher education institutions, 50% of which obtain state-subsidized schooling. An excessive amount of Russian pilots and doctors work within Africa, with the inclusion of a Russian Red Cross Society Hospital operating in Ethiopia.
Russian policy also supports the creation of effective institutions that support development. These include formalized managerial exchanges for business and a new Russia-Africa track.
Russia’s presence and existence within Africa is ever-growing; Alrosa, Gazprom, Lukoil, Rusal, Renova, Gammakhim, Technopromexport and VEB, and VTB banks are all examples of engaging in far-reaching investment on the continent. Russian corporations sank over $5 billion in Africa between the years 2000 and 2007 with the exclusion of oil exploration deals.
Stay professionally connected with CA Global Headhunters and follow us on LinkedIn
