The founder and proprietor of the newly launched magazine,
Forbes Afrique, says the magazine will highlight successful business people as well as investment opportunities in francophone African countries.
Lucien Ebata, who is also chief executive officer of the Orion Oil Company, said he went into partnership with U.S.-based Forbes media to establish
Forbes Afrique magazine to help spread information about Africa to continent and the rest of the world.
"I see in
Forbes a model that can help us to promote investments to promote finance… There is a growing momentum propelling Africa forward,” Ebata said. "Its enormous energy, extraordinary potential and profound challenges make it most certainly the continent of the 21st century."
"Africa is undergoing a rapid and fundamental transformation that is making it a new engine of global growth at a time when the world is facing a serious economic and financial crisis," he said. "African markets are developing, the private sector is growing and its middle class is booming."
Ebata said his partnership with Forbes will help promote Africa’s interests.
“We have to get inspired by the Africa reality to be able to incorporate all the data and be able to promote Africa to the world, Ebata said. “This way, we can take advantage of the opportunity of bringing more investment in Africa or to show also to the world from Africa we can develop businesses we can also have branches outside."
Ebata said he wants
Forbes Afrique to be a multi-media product.
"We do not expect
Forbes to be [an] only on paper version," he said. "We want to do Internet. We want to be able to produce TV programs, and we want to be in partnership radio programs."
Some analysts say
Forbes Afrique could face stiff competition from several other French language magazines with deeper roots in the francophone countries of Africa.
Clottey interview with Lucien Ebata, founder and proprietor of Forbes Afrique