By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –
FINANCE Minister Felix Mutati was among other ministers from across Africa who gathered with investors and the private sector to determine how best to tackle the investment and credit risk hurdles.
Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) flows to Africa have been threatened by global economic uncertainty and this prompted African governments and investors to convene a roundtable meeting in Nairobi on Wednesday to discuss possible solutions.
The fourth roundtable  with  focus on political and credit risks in Africa, took place on the sidelines of the African Trade Insurance Agency’s (ATI) annual general meeting.

MUTATI

This is contained in a statement issued in Lusaka yesterday.
For African governments, part of what is at stake are much needed FDIs and access to affordable financing necessary to spur development and, specifically, to close the estimated US$900 billion infrastructure gap.
Equally, the private sector stands to lose billions of dollars in lost opportunities if the requirements for a favourable investment environment are not adequately addressed.
The subsequent discussions focused on possible solutions to the challenges facing governments from the private sector and export credit agencies from panelists such as Mr Mutati, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Patrick Chinamasa and Romuald Wadagni, Minister of Economy and Finance, Benin.
“Investors are not immune to political and social developments in emerging regions like Africa.
“In fact, with reduced earnings – the benchmark emerging-market stock index has lost approximately four per cent annually since 2010 from a high of 22 per cent annual return in the preceding decade – investors are now focusing on more than the bottom line in these markets,” the statement states.
During the boom years of the last two decades, Africa was experiencing unprecedented Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates but depressed commodity prices saw growth in the sub-Saharan Africa region slow to 1.5 per cent rate in 2016.
According to World Bank estimates, oil exporters account for most of the slowdown owing to their two-thirds contribution to regional output.
In 2016, ATI insured close to US$2 billion worth of trade and investments and the company is increasingly supporting some of the continent’s most important transactions.