orld leaders and policymakers have always bestowed a national strategic importance to W international trade. At the very least, access to global markets ensures domestic industrial growth and jobs. Advanced economies, for the most part, reckoned that a combination of economic and military power could be the surefire strategy for exercising influence on the global stage. Such hegemonic influence could procure further domestic economic opportunities amid extended global trade channels. Hence, the G-7 – the exclusive club of the largest industrialized economies – was conceived to leverage its power and stay at the top of the pecking order of global trade. The formation of the G-20 – the bigger club of the global economic powerhouses – became a necessary response to the changing dynamics of global trade. Not only does the G-20 include some of the most advancing economies in the world, but collectively, these economies also account for approximately 80 percent of the gross world product (GWP). That is, 80 percent of the world’s trade, which includes intra-EU trade. The G-20 also accounts for about two- thirds of the world’s population. The group exercises major influence on economic and financial policies around the world, including in the African continent. The next summit of the G-20 is already scheduled for November 2015 in Antalya, Turkey. The economist, Thomas Schelling, already noted more than 40 years ago that, “broadly defined to include investment, shipping, tourism, and the management of enterprises, trade is what most international relations are about. For that reason trade policy is national security policy.” (United States International Economic Policy in an Interdependent World, Volumes 1-2, Commission on Intern. Trade, 1971). Although Africa is marginalized, the strategic importance of global trade is not lost on African economies. Indeed, the continent has grown in recent years, especially with increased foreign direct investments (FDI), mainly from the Emphasizing African opportunities Michael Froman is right when he asserts in his article in Foreign Affairs titled, “The Strategic Logic of Trade” (November/ December, 2014), that “tectonic shifts, such as economic globalization, technological change, and the rise of emerging economies, have reshaped the international landscape.” With these realities in mind, Africa must be on guard and rush to adapt to this new global competitive landscape. Unfortunately, Africans often tend to undermine their strengths and overlook their opportunities, while emphasizing their threats and believing in their weaknesses. They even tend to hesitate to look at their many victories and conquests, to tell their own positive stories. Hence, their story continues to go untold, despite the fact the examples are many, of those patriotic and self-starter business professionals and entrepreneurs who have succeeded in Africa and abroad. Africa is now home to at least half of the world’s 20 fastest growing economies. Its information technology and communication sector is growing exponentially, with increasing private capital finding its way into Africa and its people. There are today, several examples of African business professionals who have not only created personal wealth for themselves, but have also established sustainable businesses that can be benchmarked alongside the leaders in the world. Nigeria’s Wale Tinubu’s Oando PLC, a Pan-African multinational leader in the oil and gas sector, is an example. In 2013, Forbes magazine named him The King of African Oil, followed by ASKMEN magazine, which named him as one of the Top Ten CEOs in the world. Just last year, he was awarded the Leadership Business Person of the Year, by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Prince Kofi Amoabeng is another example. He is the CEO of Unique Trust Bank of Ghana (UT Bank), a financial services company that has been rated as the best financial institution in Ghana. Prince Amoabeng left a military career to pursue a career in finance, West and China, but also from India, Brazil and Russia. The devolution of economic power through the G-20 was auspicious for Africa. South Africa – the only African member of the group – could conceivably be a channel for African trading opportunities. Although the G-20 itself has failed, thus far, to live up to expectations as a viable alternative to the G-7, it continues to be at the heart of shifts in global power, particularly in emerging markets. The formation of other groupings of emerging market countries such as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and the CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa) as well as the frontier emerging markets on the African continent, is another paradigm of the unfolding shifts in global economic power from the G-7 and G-20 blocs. In the words of Ian Bremmer, in his book, entitled, Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World (2012), when reflecting on the G-20, he imagines himself in an “enormous poker table where each player guards his stack of chips, watches the nineteen others, and waits for an opportunity to play the hand he has been dealt.” Bremmer goes on to say that the G-20 is no longer a global order, but a group of countries where every nation is for itself. If advanced economies have to deal with the tectonic forces of global markets, Africa must deal with a much greater colossal reality, but one in which it must compete in the global markets and win. JULY 2015 I I 26 FINANCIAL NIGERIA MARCUS GONCALVES AFRICA IN THE EMERGING WORLD Africa must project resilience in the global marketplace