“Shine on black stars” was the chant for Ghana during the recent World Cup in South Africa. But ultimately Ghana lost to Uruguay. In investment terms too Africa has usually come second to emerging markets in Latin America and Asia.

Now, however, there are signs the global investment community has woken up to Africa's potential. Last month, Boston Consulting Group released a report, The African Challengers – global competitors it said were emerging from “the overlooked continent” – and McKinsey published an 80-page report talking up Africa's “lions”.

Economic stagnation in the last two decades of the 20th century in Africa was followed by annual gross domestic product growth of 4.9 per cent a year in 2000-08, says McKinsey. Today, Africa has a level of urbanisation nearly as high as China's with 52 cities of more than 1m people.