“We wanted to understand why Africa is seen as a high-risk business destination and why the cost of money is at a premium."International media organisations are dangerously distorting business narratives in Africa, a new report by Africa no filter and AKAS, an international audience strategy company, has found.said keywords, stories, frames, and narratives associated with business on the continent are dangerously distorted.
It added that negative references continue to dominate coverage of business on the continent, with ‘corruption’ referenced in nearly 10 per cent of stories on business in Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Area is the largest free trade area in the world by the number of countries taking part, the report noted, yet it makes up “less than 1 per cent of business news and analysis while mentions of Foreign Direct Investment fell from 3.2 per cent in 2017 to an even lower 1.9 per cent of coverage in 2021.
“The report gives us an insight into why. It shows that business opportunities on the continent are both underrepresented and misrepresented, and now that we know this, we can work on educating the media and changing the narrative around business in Africa,” he added.