Africa should focus on governance, says Coca-Cola

The CEO of Coca-Cola, Muhtar Kent, recommends that the African leaders around the world stage hectic that prioritize improve governance in their countries and says that if they do they will have economic benefits "exponentially positive".
Coca-Cola, one of the multinationals that invest more in Africa, has presence in all 54 countries on the continent. Some of these Nations suffer criticism for his poor governance-including from the tax laws, labor and monopoly related to corruption and foreign exchange policies.
On Monday, Kent opened in Rwanda the project sustainable entrepreneurship Ekocenter model company in the world, praising the country''s President, Paul Kagame, have directed its "focus" to good governance.
Kent, who is also President of the Board of Directors of Coca-Cola, told the "Financial Times" that Africa is not about "one story".
"Africa will have various Nations with GDP growth rates of a digit percentage high over the next 15 years and will have a few stragglers; We''re going to have both, "he said. "But small improvements in governance come from generating exponentially positive results for Africa so that [if] the improvement in governance could continue, Africa will live better days."
His ideas had corroborated a research on investments in Africa Consulting Group EY, in which the most frequent recommendation of executives for national leaders improve the landscape for companies was to establish a sustainable governance.
David Cowan, Citigroup economist specializing in Africa, said that governance "enters the equation of investments of all multinational companies investing in Africa", although indicate its degree of importance varies case-by-case basis. In addition to Coca-Cola, several companies have shown confidence in countries with more business-friendly policies.
The French supermarket chain Carrefour chose Côte d''Ivoire and Kenya, two countries in which it is considered that the next governance improving, as locations for its first shops in sub-Saharan Africa. The Pentair industrial group, with shares in the United States, also recently opened its first Office in Africa, in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, where General Electric built their first African headquarters for five years.
In the opposite direction, the Spanish Iberia airline, part of the International Airlines Group, is leaving Nigeria this month in part by currency restrictions adopted by the Government, heavily criticized. For the same reason, his American rival United Airlines will end the daily flights to Lagos, Nigeria''s economic capital.
Cowan points out, however, that investors need to be careful when assessing governance. "We see a little for Africa are good Governments in working with consultants to ensure that quick and easy reforms to allow them to move forward in the various indexes that most people use to measure governance," alert, without giving names. "If this actually represents a prolonged improvement in the levels of governance, is something that is a lot less clear".
Coca-Cola remains optimistic about Africa, despite the slowdown in the growth of much of the continent. The multinational gets about of 10% of its sales, by volume, in Africa and the company, according to Kent, is in the middle of an investment program of $ 17 billion in ten years on the continent, twice the amount invested in the ten previous years.
Among the recent investments are buying some of the non-alcoholic brands of SABMiller for $ 260 million and the purchase of 40% stake in the manufacturer of Nigerian CHI juices for $ 240 million.
Kent wouldn''t comment on what would be the impact on Coca-Cola purchase of SABMiller''s proposal (which has bottling operations of Coca-Cola in South Africa) by AB InBev (bottling some rival PepsiCo drinks in Latin America). The Executive said that the agreement is still something.
As for the restructuring of global bottling operations of Coca-Cola, Kent said the merger of three bottlers in Europe was given by nature "focused" the retail business in the region and that the transaction will not serve as a model for other places. Coca-Cola will have "five or six" u.s. bottlers and many in Africa.
Amid the widespread drop in sales of carbonated drinks, in particular in developed countries, where Coca-Cola gets 70% of its total revenue, Kent made harsh criticism to taxes on beverages with sugar as a way to reduce obesity. "It''s been proven over and over again that the regulation does not solve the problem," he said.