Opportunities and prospects of doing business in Africa; a case of oil companies

Abstract

The African continent with its vast natural resources and developing economy has attracted several Western and Eastern MNEs to make investments in different sectors. This paper discusses the opportunities, prospects and challenges African economies pose to Western and Eastern MNEs and how these firms handle the challenges. The challenges include supply chain logistics, political/regulatory environment, human resourcing, obtaining market information and socio/cultural issues. A case of Oil Companies used to identify these challenges with their activities in Sub-Sahara Africa. It is observed that the political environment and logistical challenges significantly affect the business performance efforts of oil companies in the sub-Sahara region. Some approaches to address these challenges including actively promoting the awareness of diversity and importance of inclusion of the various cultures in the organization, and establishing proper employee development programs are discussed.