investinginafrica.net

In this guest post, Peter Thoms, the founder of Africa Capital Group, shares his top five reasons for investing in African stock markets.

Africa may be the last great ground-floor international investment opportunity left on earth. Until just recently, however, the continent has remained beyond the consciousness of all but the most adventurous of investors. But now Africa is beginning to gain a wider audience in financial circles. Why? Because it has notched strong growth for the last decade and is likely still in the early stages of a powerful and transforming spurt of economic progress.

The World Bank released its 2013 Doing Business report this month. The document ranks all the world’s nations on how hospitable they are to starting and running a business.

Ranking criteria include everything from construction permits to taxation to the accessibility of credit.

Let’s count down the top ten easiest African countries to do business and list some of the recent reforms they’ve undertaken that make them favorites of African entrepreneurs and CEOs.

Greg Barker of the Mauritius-based Sustainable Capital has just penned another insightful article on the value of African stocks. In it, he shows how African stock markets (excluding the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) have fallen well below their normal valuation in relation to other world markets over the past four years.

Since 2009, emerging market stocks have notched a 95.2% return compared to African ex-SA stocks’ 23.9% performance. To Barker, this suggests a reversion to the mean is on its way. He believes the market performances will return to their normal parity much like a rubber band does after being stretched.