Making investment work for long-term development is a challenge facing both resource-rich and income-poor countries.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has boomed in Africa over the last 12 months — with record-breaking inflows of $38.8 billion in 2006, a 26.5% rise — and this revival looks set to continue. Africa’s challenge is to seize this opportunity to help boost domestic productive capacities, enabling broader economic and human development over the long term.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic stability, combined with a favourable global growth climate, now offers opportunities that the region has begun to exploit. But further work is needed at the “micro” level to accelerate progress on the Millennium Development Goals.

Johnnic Communications, also known as Johncom, is one of Africa’s largest media and entertainment groups with interests ranging from bookshops to movie theatres clustering around its newspaper, music and film distribution business. It shares major links with a British multimedia giant but the South African company has always been a champion of South–South trade. Now it is expanding vigorously in Nigeria to help develop the potential of what has been called the Nollywood film business.