OPINION: Why Is the System Blocking Employment and Black Business Growth?

By Sheida Mutuku, CEO, Woodside Africa Group LLC

At Woodside, we have 1,000 quality jobs ready to be filled today. But we are in freeze mode.

We are sitting on the CVs of brilliant youth, yet the operational capital required for ambitious growth is being withheld by an obsolete, cartel-like system that shuns its own.

The Invisibility Of The Black African Investors

The exclusion goes beyond capital to being locked out of spaces where Africa’s future is determined.

Recently, I sought to engage with KIICO2026. I reached out directly to leadership, called Kenya Investment Authority (InvestKenya) and applied for VIP ticket access of $1,540 to ensure Woodside’s $35B social infrastructure fund was represented.

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The result? Silence. Completely shunned.

Looking at the speaker list, they are dominated by foreign, white & predominantly male faces branded as “the investors”. Why am I, a black African female investor of Kenyan origin with a multi-billion dollar portfolio, invisible in my own country?

Africa must flip the script. Priority should be given to local, multi-billion-dollar investors first. Foreign interests should fill the remaining gaps. If we continue to subjugate homegrown enterprise, we will never prosper.

The Failure Of Global Institutions

This lack of support extends to global institutions like the IFC – International Finance Corporation. While they claim to support enterprise in Africa, their track record tells a different story… of stunted enterprise and economic growth.

You cannot ask for a track record of billions that the system itself has blocked.

But we are not sitting back. We developed the Africa Social Infrastructure Fund (ASIF) to raise $35B for 50 large-scale projects across Africa, targeting a $1B operational scale over the next 15 years.

We are providing solutions, but the system is acting as a bottleneck rather than a catalyst.

A Continental Crisis Of Frozen Opportunity

This bottleneck repeats across every border where Woodside is establishing a presence: Uganda (500 jobs), South Africa (2,000 jobs), and Nigeria (3,000 jobs). Continentally, Woodside represents a 15,000-job opportunity.

These roles are ready. Governments refuse to acknowledge the talent and capital already present in Africa.

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Value Vs Subsidized Loss

When I advocate for state-backed entrepreneurship, I am not suggesting support of loss-making entities. But that is not Woodside. We are a for-profit, sustainability-driven firm.

Even while bootstrapping through these constraints, we are on track to become a $5B turnover company by 2040. Imagine the impact if we had similar leverage reserved for foreign-led ventures.

Africa will only prosper through locally led, world-class enterprises. There is an urgent need to redesign the entire business ecosystem. The premise should be deliberate support of large-scale, black, African entrepreneurs.

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