A survey of 250 CEOs from East Africa conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers has revealed that only 38% of business leaders believe NEPAD will succeed.

Nepad has been heralded as a new dawn for Africa. It is the first time in history that African leaders have collecltively taken responsibility for the continent's development. However, there appears to be much scepticism as to how successful NEPAD will be in achieving its objectives.

Many people have been asking, "What is so different about NEPAD?", "Why should the AU succeed where the OAU has failed?", and "What is the difference between the two anyway?" In addition, the commitment of African leaders has also been questioned.

CEOs views

We asked more than 250 CEOs from East Africa for their views on NEPAD, and what they thought the chances of its success were. We received comments from 239 respondents in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, through face-to-face interviews conducted by an independent research company. CEOs were selected at random from a list of the top organisations in each sector of the economy including publicly listed companies, state-owned enterprises, major subsidiaries of multinational corporations and large private companies.

A summary of the results follows:

• 38% of CEOs thinks NEPAD is likely to succeed, 26% were neutral, and 32% believed NEPAD's chances of success were unlikely.
• 27% of respondents believe that cooperation from African leaders is necessary of NEPAD's success; many CEOs think African leaders are selfish and ignore the concerns of the business community.
• The main barriers/challenges facing NEPAD include poor/corrupt leadership, war/conflict and trade barriers.
• The main benefits of NEPAD include economic growth/focus, opening up export markets, and improved governance and transparency.

These sceptics forget, however, that the private sector must contribute to Africa's development and cannot solely pin the blame on a political leadership facing a difficult battle to improve the continent's growth. The New Partnership encompasses this public and private partnership as it promotes foreign investment, international trade and aid.