The dream of most African Diaspora is to return home someday, after their sojourn, to invest in a worthwhile venture and live ever happily after form the proceeds of the investment. However, being away for a very long time and not in tune with present trends or happenings in Africa, most African Diaspora are often in dilemma as to what type of investment to make. In this series of articles, we shall discuss four “evergreen” business opportunities that are ‘thirsty’ for the African Diaspora’s fund. These business opportunities are in agriculture, infrastructure building, extractive or mining industry, and emerging trends in entertainment and telecommunications. Irrespective of the available capital, you can play as a small, medium or large-scale investor in any of these businesses.

Agriculture is as old as the Egyptian civilization in Africa. It has been there for centuries and it is not going to end that soon.For the purpose of our text, agriculture involves all the processes that takes place from the farm to the table.Agriculture in Africa offers a billion dollar opportunity. Sadly, these opportunities comes from the many problems militating against the growth of Agriculture in Africa. The World Bank have consistently reported huge post harvest losses in Africa. In 2011, the report gave an estimated post harvest loss of around $ 4 billion dollars per year, out of an estimated grain production of $ 27 billion dollar. Furthermore, this loss amounts to fifteen percent and it is said that “it could meet the food requirements of 48 million Africans annually”. It will also interest you to know that this report informs us only about grain losses in Sub-Saharan Africa. What will the picture be for fruits and vegetables, and other foodstuffs consumed in Africa? What will the livestock report be like? However, it is also important to know that this loss is not from a single source, but rather different sources across the agriculture chain. This losses could emanate from pest infestation while on the field, lack of irrigation, poor soil nutrient, bad road network, lack of modern farm implements and lack of modern storage facilities.

To the savvy African Diaspora, each problem highlighted presents an investment opportunity. The highlighted problems above represent a minute fraction of the many problems militating against agriculture in Africa. To get acquainted with these problems and know where to place your funds, a visit first to the government agriculture ministry is a must.