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ave been tumbling. As the founder and CEO of the Kemet Group, Brian Menell runs a company that invests in mineral resource extraction and mining, as well as financial services and technology. Menell was asked about his experience of investment within the natural resource space, to which he responded that the market environment has retarded development and investment in sectors such as oil and gas, which are suffering from lower prices. However, Menell states that the end of the oil boom has the potential to boost an alternative type of economic growth. ‘Oil I don’t believe has been a curse for some of those countries that have benefited from the oil boom, as some people have suggested’ says Menell. He argues that the oil extraction industry has enabled governments in Africa, including Gabon where the summit was hosted, to build capacity and improve infrastructure. Brian Menell asserts that the oil boom has slowed the process of moving away from economic growth dependent on foreign investment, or the extractive industries, and towards growth driven by local innovation and equal partnerships with foreign investors in service industries. Despite the stress that the market environment is causing, it expedites a positive paradigm shift and move away from dependence on commodities, as such, it is an exciting time. The future lies in creating ‘an African solution to an African problem creating an African opportunity’ and weaning off the structures and systems oil producing companies have become dependent on.