Africa has encouraging developments which, if sustained, will fast track the continent’s role as a global growth engine, Coca Cola’s Global Chief Executive James Quincey has said.
Speaking in Nigeria where he culminated his tour of Africa on last week, Mr. Quincy highlighted the growing scale of domestic investments by African investors across sectors and the potential of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) as some of the factors that can lay the foundation for the continent’s economic growth. Other factors included Africa’s positive consumer demographics, the infrastructure expansion in many countries and the growing emphasis on building African talent.
“It is clear that Africa is indeed a region that will increasingly influence the growth trajectory of global businesses and we have taken some bold measures to strengthen the Coca-Cola System in Africa for long term growth, enhancing our capacity to continue to win in the continent’s increasingly competitive landscape,” Coca Cola’s Global CEO said.
According to the beverage maker’s CEO the continent’s potential similarly presents vast opportunities in driving Coca Cola’s overarching growth strategy over the next decade
“Together with our bottling partners, we continue to reinforce our stake on the continent by accelerating investments that strengthen and scale our capabilities and expand into new businesses to drive our Total Beverage Company aspiration,” Coca Cola’s Global CEO explained.
He similarly outlined the company’s growth plans in Africa, including continuously investing to boost capacity ahead of demand, consolidating the bottling system to build scale and investing in new businesses to accelerate growth and expand its beverage offering. Mr.Quincy also cited Coca-Cola’s role in spurring Africa’s economy through the eco-system the company has built and continues to foster investments across multiple sectors on the continent.
Underpinning this, he emphasized that the Company is committed to building a talent engine in Africa, creating shared opportunities to enhance the prosperity of communities across the continent.
“We have an enduring belief that our business is only as sustainable as the communities in which we operate, that means for our business to grow sustainably, our communities must grow also,” Mr. Quincy concluded.
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