Private equity firm United Africa Group has grown from humble beginnings in 1992 to own 42 companies in four sectors: real estate (office buildings), hospitality (12 hotels), financial services (pension management) and energy (oil, wind power).The private company, based in Windhoek, employs 480 people directly and currently has revenues of almost N$4bn/year. Namibia's government is a key customer.
 

Haddis Tilahun is Ethiopian but has lived in Namibia for the past 18 years. He runs UAG with his wife, Martha Namundjebo - Tilahun, who is the chair of the group. Tilahun is also a member of the Namibian Presidential Advisory Council on economic issues. He says Africa is a good investment destination and sectors as diverse as mining, real estate and IT can produce investment returns of 20% or higher. Tilahun says: "Africa has the opportunity to create wealth for those who'd take the risk and invest in this environment. While you might have difficulties at times investing in Africa the returns are so high it makes it worthwhile."
 

The group's current flagship is the new Hilton Windhoek Hotel and Tilahun says that investment is the first of many."UAG owns 2ha in the immediate area, including the hotel, and has plans to expand the hotel and add 80 000m sq metres of mixed use space." Tilahun is a big believer in brand value.  "That's why we went with the Hilton group. The brand itself brings you a certain customer base. We invited five bidders to come and pitch to manage the new hotel but ultimately we're very happy with our decision to go with Hilton."
 

UAG is also planning a major wind farm in south-west Namibia. "We already have a licence to be an independent power producer. Now we're waiting on a power buying agreement with Nampower, for which we've applied. Once that's in hand the plan is to build a 92MW facility in Luderitz." UAG has already started looking at partners from Japan and South Korea. Tilahun says the group will build capacity of 44MW in the first phase of development.  "We expect the initial cost to be around US$150m and we're aiming to be fully operational by 2013."  Tilahun says Namibia has some of the best resources to develop renewable energy, in particular solar power.

 

"But we decided to go with wind, since the current existing technology is more proven and not as expensive as solar." 

Regarding the economy in general, Tilahun says Namibian per capita GDP is among the highest in Africa."However, the distribution of wealth is an issue. Unemployment is also a very real concern. I believe the Namibian government is very aware of the issue and is very open minded about looking at ways to resolve it. For example, the government is trying very hard to attract more and more foreign investment."