To get more capital, Africa needs more data

“The concept of risk is completely invented to ensure that investment doesn’t come to Africa,” Gagan Gupta told an audience of investors and entrepreneurs earlier this year, to resounding applause. Mr Gupta, whose firm works on logistics and utilities across Africa, is optimistic about the continent and scathing about outsiders’ ability to assess it. Philippe Valahu, the boss of PIDG, an infrastructure-finance group, echoes the sentiment: “I spend a huge amount of my time dispelling risk perceptions,” he says. Aubrey Hruby, who advises investors on entering Africa, recalls that “one thing [Americans] always say is, what about corruption? I’m like, how many mayors in America are serving jail time right now for corruption?”