Africa, a door ajar to new prosperity

It is true that such a view, inherited from a long colonial relationship, is not easy to eradicate, and even less so to replace it with a relationship of equals, with respect for each other's personalities and interests.

This is the second time that Madrid has hosted a Spain-Africa forum, aimed primarily at changing this outdated view of Africans held by Europeans. It has been organised by a private institution, One Africa Forums, conceived and launched twenty years ago by a Moroccan businessman, Hassan M. Alaoui, who has turned it into a multifaceted platform for dialogue and exchange between political, economic and social leaders from the African continent and their Spanish counterparts, especially businesspeople and financiers.

Over the course of three days, more than a hundred of these leaders debated, both publicly and privately, the enormous opportunities for cooperation that Africa offers Spanish companies and institutions. There has been more receptiveness on this northern shore of the Mediterranean than at the first forum, held just three years ago. This is a positive sign from the Spanish government, which is demonstrating that it still has the clarity of vision to fully support the conference. In doing so, it confirms its commitment to increasing its presence and contacts with the continent, a desire expressed in the Spain-Africa Strategy 2025-2028. Obviously, this strategy involves further deepening relations of all kinds with Morocco, while dispelling the negative clichés that persist in at least part of the Spanish population regarding its southern neighbour.

As the Moroccan ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich, never tires of repeating, the establishment of companies in both countries continues to grow in the wake of a cascade of projects that not only affect and are developed in Morocco, but also involve an increasing number of countries on the Atlantic coast, from the Alawite kingdom to Nigeria.

At a time when, for various reasons, France is facing unquestionable criticism of its post-colonial policy in Africa, which has led to the expulsion of its permanent military bases and even the total or partial breakdown of diplomatic relations, Spain is trying to take over, devoid of any neocolonial ambitions, with a view to strengthening personal relations, which are so crucial when doing business in Africa, and, consequently, levels of inter-company trust.

Coordinated action and a realistic perspective, which does not exclude the European Union as a whole, with the aim of achieving and sharing the prosperity that should result from business cooperation between the two continents.

As one of the most brilliant speakers at the forum, Abdou Diop, from the consulting firm Forvis Mazars, pointed out, Africa needs nothing more than a positive boost to reap the rewards of assets that not everyone can see: a population of more than 2 billion people by the middle of this century, with the strength of being mostly made up of young people under the age of 25; average economic growth of 5%; mineral resources accounting for 30% of the world's total; the largest reserve of fertile land that could be converted into agricultural and agri-food industries, turning the continent into the new breadbasket of the world; hundreds of large infrastructure projects capable of connecting the continent and linking it to the two oceans that surround it; and, finally, undoubted potential in the fields of energy, water use, the sports industry and tourism, all of which make up a landscape of multiple opportunities.

Africa can therefore also become a key partner in addressing major global challenges, whether climate change or the preservation and expansion of trade routes. Of course, we must not overlook the difficulties posed by terrorism and even tribal conflicts that still persist in many parts of the continent. However, these are problems that can be overcome if opportunities are created for an explosively young population capable of generating huge amounts of talent, which in a globalised world such as ours could fill the significant human capital deficit in an ageing Europe.