At the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town CNN's Robyn Curnow got the chance to quiz some key figures in a round-table discussion about the future of Africa.
The discussion opened with a question about what they wanted from the G20 nations. In response, South African Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan said he believed the G20 should focus less on national interests and more on global issues.
He said members needed to "find that collective will again, to demonstrate to the world that it can rely on the G20 for answers to some of the key questions the world faces."
Matthew Kirk, Group External Affairs Director for Vodafone, called for the G20 to look at "the factors which make a business case for investing in Africa more difficult."
"It's things like judicial systems, non-transparent ministrative systems, lack of capacity in regulatory bodies, ways to tackle corruption -- all these sorts of things increase the risk profile of an investment in Africa against an investment somewhere else," he said.
He added that he hoped that once these issues begin to be resolved, the positive stories about Africa will increase and it will be able to "become really open for investment."
Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of the Nestlé Group said that an analysis of the 35 "highest gross" countries in Africa against the lowest gross countries revealed that a key difference was global financial assistance.
"It was those countries that received the most aid which were growing the slowest," he said.
"I think it is important to hammer this message back into the G20, because otherwise we will go back and we'll believe that the future of Africa depends on the amount of aid money which is coming in from outside."
Maria Ramos, Group Chief Executive of Absa Group pointed out that to safeguard a successful economic future for Africa, developments in infrastructure were essential.
While she explained that investment will only follow if grassroots infrastructure is strong, she admitted that this raised a complex issue because, "we still lack the capacity to actually action some of the investment that is required in infrastructure."
Ramos was quick to acknowledge that a lack of infrastructure was not the sole reason for slow investment, citing legal systems and cross-border issues as just two of the main barriers to African investment.
The education of Africa's young workforce was also a major concern for the round-table discussion group.
Brabeck-Letmathe said: "If you build a railway from the east to the west of Africa and this railway is being constructed by foreign workers, you'll have built a great infrastructure, (but) you don't have afterwards engineers or people you need in order to maintain this railway.
"As long as we have a donor mentality, which does not include the most important thing -- the transfer of know how, of knowledge, of technology -- you will not have a base in order to build for investment."
When the issue of what the "Asian Tigers" could teach the "African Lions" was raised, Dho Young-Shim, a member of the United Nations Millennium Advocacy Group, said that although education was essential, economic success came hand in hand with sheer will power.
The discussion ended with hopes for the future.
Ramos said: "I have a dream that one day when you input Africa and competitive advantaging into Google, it's not going to be diamonds or gold, it's going to be the fact that we've got people, and we've got talent on this continent and that we can develop that talent." CNN
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