Jamal focuses on principle investors and private equity (PIPE), social impact, and climate and sustainability work.

He has experience with clients across the development finance space, commercial banks, institutional investors, private equity, and catalytic impact investors.

In his new role Jamal will focus on supporting financial institutions and investors to attain sustainable success, long-term returns, and measurable impact.

His focus will be on addressing financing gaps across Africa while meeting the continent’s climate, sustainability, and social impact goals.

Before BCG, Jamal worked for Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a strategy and policy advisory firm dedicated to global development and innovation. Jamal holds a master’s degree in economics from McGill University and a bachelor’s degree in politics, philosophy, and economics from the University of Oxford.

“Africa faces substantial financing gaps in commercial and socio-economic needs,” said Jamal. “We need public and private capital to come together to address this. BCG offers unique expertise across development and commercial finance to help meet these challenges, and I am excited to join and build on this work.”

Tolu Oyekan, managing director and partner and Office Leader at BCG Nigeria said about the appointment:

“Adding Aly-Khan to our leadership team bolsters our local expertise and aligns with the potential we see within Nigeria and in Africa. At BCG, our vision is to work with our clients to contribute meaningfully and unlock the potential of Africa.”

BCG also announced additional appointments in the region: Jacqueline Foster-Mutungu as Managing Director and Partner in Johannesburg, South Africa; and Nabil Mikou and Badr Choufari as Managing Directors and Partners in Casablanca, Morocco.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

• Founded in 1963, and with offices in over 50 countries, BCG’s diverse, global team comprising of 30 000 plus people bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives that provide clients with management consulting solutions.
• Through its transformational approach aimed at helping all stakeholders, BCG empowers organisations to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage and drive positive societal impact.
• BCG is well established in Africa, with offices in: Cairo, Casablanca, Johannesburg, Lagos, and Nairobi, bringing together a team of nearly 600 collaborators.

The tendency towards a shift from the “trade-led globalism” of the past 20 years has been underscore as a capital reason.

According to a research by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the year-on-year growth in global goods trade is projected to be 2.8%, dropping behind an annual GDP growth rate of 3.1%.

The report further stressed on the fact that,  a dampened outlook for trade growth is part of a “reordering of the world trade map” after the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war.

With regional trade corridors emerging at the expense of traditional routes between China, the US and the EU.

“The projected fall-off in US-China trade is one of the most significant developments in the updated global trade map, with 2032 trade value forecast to fall by US$197bn from its 2022 level,” BCG says.

By contrast, US trade with Mexico and Canada will grow by US$466bn in the next decade, while cumulative trade growth for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is expected to reach US$1.2tn in the same period.

While India is also set to benefit from the shift away from China, with its international trade estimated to grow by US$393bn in the next 10 years, including US$124bn in trade with the Asian powerhouse.

Tim Figures, partner and associate director at BCG, tells GTR in a written statement the report suggests the tendency towards regional patterns of trade is here to stay.

Underscoring the Geo-political factors driving this course, Figures says, “We think that the geopolitical factors driving this – such as western sanctions against Russia, the increased tensions between the US and China and a new focus on economic security and resilience – are unlikely to dissipate in the medium term,”

“As supply chains are rebalanced and neighboring countries solidify their regional trade relationships, we expect to see lasting changes in flows of goods around the world,” says Nikolaus Lang, managing director and senior partner at BCG, and a co-author of the report.

BCG uses historical correlations and artificial intelligence to create its forecasts, and covers over 250 exporting countries.

Trade values are expressed in real terms.

Research published this week by the Hinrich Foundation and Oxford Economics suggests that supply chains for intermediate goods have continued to expand, and questions whether nearshoring is a “prevalent strategy” worldwide.

The report reiterates the decoupling of China and the US, but points to a growth in imports from China by G7 countries like Germany and the UK between 2018 and 2022, which rose from 11.1% to 15.9% and from 10.3% to 15.1%, respectively.

Discussing the consequences of a shift away from trade-led globalism for efforts to tackle climate change, Figures says countries and blocs like the EU that are moving towards net zero more quickly will be able to do so “without running the risk of their efforts being undermined by ‘carbon leakage’”.

This is the idea that more advanced climate policies in some countries could lead to an increase in CO2 emissions overall, if, for example, production is moved offshore or imports are upped from countries with less stringent policies.

“On the other hand, countries and companies may find it harder to access the inputs – such as critical raw minerals – that they need to decarbonise if new barriers to trade are erected,” Figures adds.

The EU recently introduced the first phase of its carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which is partly intended to combat carbon leakage by setting what it describes as a fair price on carbon emitted during the production of goods entering the bloc.

[Featured Art Word Credit]

No doubt, climate change mitigation, along with adaptation and resilience, is crucial. Efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 will be essential, as will efforts to prepare for the consequences of climate change and to minimize the resulting harm.

Applying advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to climate challenges provides a vital way to make meaningful change at this critical moment.

According to a new report from the AI for the Planet Alliance, produced in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and BCG GAMMA, 87% of public- and private-sector leaders who oversee climate and AI topics believe that AI is a valuable asset in the fight against climate change.

The report, titled How AI Can Be a Powerful Tool in the Fight Against Climate Change, is being released today.

Based on survey results from over 1,000 executives with decision-making authority on AI or climate-change initiatives, the report finds that roughly 40% of organizations can envision using AI for their own climate efforts.

However, even among these experts, there is widespread agreement that significant barriers to broad adoption remain in place: 78% of respondents cite insufficient AI expertise as an obstacle to using AI in their climate change efforts, 77% cite limited availability of AI solutions as a roadblock, and 67% point to a lack of confidence in AI-related data and analysis.

“AI’s unique capacity to gather, complete, and interpret large, complex data sets means it can help stakeholders take a more informed and data-driven approach to combating carbon emissions and addressing climate risks,” said Hamid Maher, managing director and partner at BCG and BCG GAMMA, and a coauthor of the report. “However, most existing AI-related climate solutions are scattered, tend to be difficult to access, and lack the resources to scale. These shortcomings need to change.”

Uses of AI in Combating Climate Change

Global leaders can use AI to achieve their goals in multiple ways:

• Mitigation. One of the most critical uses of AI is in the measurement, reduction, and removal of emissions and greenhouse gas (GHG) effects. More than 60% of public- and private-sector leaders see the greatest business value for their organizations in the reduction and measurement of emissions. According to BCG, use of AI can drive reductions of 5% to 10% GHG emissions, or 2.6 to 5.3 gigatons of CO₂e if applied globally.

• Adaptation and Resilience. Adapting to climate change is a critical undertaking for policy makers and the public, as it boosts resilience to the effects of both long-term climate trends and extreme weather events. AI is well suited to help project climate-related hazards, whether by improving long-term projections of localized events such as sea-level rise or by upgrading early warning systems for extreme phenomena such as hurricanes or droughts.

• Fundamentals. AI can be used to support research and education efforts about climate change, helping stakeholders understand the risks and implications involved and encouraging them to share what they learn. These efforts support and magnify ongoing work toward mitigation and adaptation and resilience.

Call for Solutions – Need for Meaningful Support

A multitude of critical uses for AI exist in the climate change arena, but any successful AI solution must be user-friendly and readily accessible.

It must offer tangible benefits to the user and provide clear recommendations that are easy to act on. AI solutions therefore need much more meaningful support, including access to capital investment, decision makers, and trained practitioners.

“AI has strong promise to help solve the climate crisis, but AI alone is not enough. It depends on the will of decision makers to act and make necessary changes—supported in part by AI and other emerging technologies,” said Damien Gromier, founder of AI for the Planet and a coauthor of the report.

AI for the Planet has invited all interested parties to participate in its call for solutions, with proposals in any stage of maturity (if ready for a first pilot, at a minimum) and from any sector, whether private, public, academic, or nonprofit. Support for each solution chosen will be tailored to its needs and may range from customized commercial or technical support to investor relationships and network development.

How to apply:

To learn more about the call for solutions or to apply, see here.

A new report from BCG, titled A New Era for Fuel Retailers, explores a fuel retail landscape that is evolving at a faster-than-predicted pace and the strategies fuel retailers must implement to survive and thrive in the face of monumental threats.

The fuel industry has long been facing disruptive forces, and these have only accelerated since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic: electric vehicles (EVs) and alternative fuels have gained significant traction, mobility usage and attitudes have evolved, and customer behavior has changed dramatically.

According to the report, which is based on a survey of 33 executives from 20 leading global retailers, operators with robust retail businesses found that in-store sales and online offers during the pandemic offset sharp declines in gasoline and diesel sales volumes.

More recently, as geopolitical uncertainty and volatility have placed upward pressure on oil prices, many operators have realized that retail is a matter of business resiliency.

As such, some 70% of leading fuel retailers are planning to expand their network in the coming years.

Oluseun Solanke, Partner and Associate Director at BCG Nigeria, said, “The latest innovations in mobility and renewable power technology is encouraging stakeholders in the Nigeria’s energy and automotive industries to develop and deploy solar-powered electric charging ports and expand gas stations in response to the growing fleet of electric and gas-powered vehicles.

“These initiatives, which are part of the pilot project of National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), will open more opportunities for investors to boost profitability and decarbonise the environment; encourage retail stations to expand their offerings and automobile technicians to upgrade their skills, when deployed at scale.

“Beyond extracting the most value from their traditional core business, fuel retailers’ survival depends on investing beyond the pump,” said Mirko Rubeis, a Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG and a coauthor of the report. “They need to make ambitious moves into new digital businesses while also adapting the service station to support EV and other alternatives fuels, capitalize on their existing real estate, and zero in on sustainable mobility.”

Leading Trends in the Fuel Retail Landscape

In the past few years, five trends in the fuel retail industry stand out:

• Alternative fuels are no longer optional. Sales of EVs are rising—in some regions, even outpacing those of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. BCG projects that by 2030, more than 50% of new light-duty vehicle sales in the US will be EVs. Demand for biofuels is also increasing, and regional partnerships in Europe, China, and the US are being created to enable the mass market rollout of hydrogen-fueled heavy-duty transportation (e.g., long-haul trucks; buses). As a result, 95% of fuel retailers are either already offering or planning to offer EV charging, and 55% are offering or planning to offer alternative fuels. (See the exhibit.)

• Advancing mobility forms are changing usage patterns. The pace of technological development in advanced mobility will change the kind of vehicles—and the type of customers—that show up at the service station. The pool is diversifying from purely self-driven vehicles to autonomous fleets and from ICE-only to EVs.
• COVID-19 has changed consumer behavior. Convenience store (C-store) sales in the US are increasing among those fuel retailers that have adapted their offerings to meet rising consumer expectations around convenience. 65% of the fuel retailers surveyed now plan to invest more in their C-stores to enhance the customer experience and improve site efficiencies.
• Digital technologies are expanding retailers’ capabilities. Around 60% of fuel retailers are using big data analytics to customize their offerings within and beyond the service station. Digital technologies have also enabled individual stations to use dynamic pricing—an important tool for keeping margins high during COVID when volumes plummeted.
• Sustainability is taking root. Regulators are adopting more stringent measures to control CO₂ emissions, and price parity between alternatives and fossil gasoline is becoming a reality. More EVs are becoming available at prices comparable to ICE vehicles, while in some regions renewable diesel is approaching the same price point as petroleum-derived diesel.

An Agenda for Action

These developments point to the need for fuel retailers to reorient themselves: away from fossil fuel and toward alternatives, and away from the vehicle and toward the customer.

The opportunities for growth are significant if retailers pursue four strategic avenues:

• Rethinking their future network for a world in which hydrocarbon fuels no longer dominate
• Reimagining the station as a mobility and convenience hub
• Revamping their loyalty and personalization programs
• Driving new growth areas beyond the service station

“The possibilities for fuel retailers are numerous, but time is in short supply,” said Stuart Groves, a managing director and partner at BCG and a coauthor of the report. “Retailers that embrace these imperatives, seriously and swiftly, will not only retain their relevance in the low-carbon economy, but can also look forward to an expansive future.”

Download the publication here.

This is contained in a new report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), titled The War in Ukraine and the Rush to Feed the World, which explores in detail the multiple direct and indirect impacts of the turmoil in Ukraine on global food systems.

The BCG report co-authored with Food Systems for the Future also provides 30 near- and medium-term solutions to help respond to the crisis and improve the resilience of global food systems.

It said the affected countries concentrated in Africa, South Asia and Latin America, were hotspots around the world as they were enduring some of the worst effects of the crisis.

According to the BCG report, Nigeria and the other affected countries face severe levels of extreme poverty, compounded by the ongoing economic and social challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additional factors worsening the food crisis identified in the report include heavy reliance on food imports, high import bills, high inflation, a high debt burden, climate risks, and civil unrest.

An estimated 1.7 billion people — most of them in developing economies — could suffer severely increased food insecurity, higher energy prices, or greater debt burdens, according to the UN Task Team for the Global Crisis Response Group.

Each of these individual factors adversely affects people’s ability to feed themselves. At the same time, there is a critical need to address them more holistically and across all sectors in order to reshape our food systems so that we can counteract this humanitarian crisis — and future ones.

Stefano Niavas, Managing Director, and Partner at BCG Nigeria, while commenting on the findings, said, “The impact of the Ukraine war on our food systems calls for critical and immediate review of our budgetary allocation. Currently, Nigeria spends over 27 times of its Agriculture allocation to service its debt. Compounded with the Ukraine war and the lingering challenges of COVID-19, the average ddebt-t-GDP ratio across the continent is expected to rise from 60% to 70%.

To minimise the impact of the crisis on Nigeria’s food systems, the Government and all critical stakeholders should ensure stabilising the rising cost of food and fertilizer by the provision of viable seedlings, supporting the growth of alternative nutritious grains, driving the adoption of innovative farm practices. The introduction of alternative sources of fertilizer will help reduce the country’s reliance on food imports.”

Together, Russia and Ukraine account for about 12% of the total food calories traded around the world, and both are critical exporters of key commodities such as wheat (28% of global trade) and sunflower oil (69%), according to the International Food Policy Institute.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) buys from Ukraine half of the wheat it distributes around the world. Further, as exports from these countries tumble, some other leading exporting countries have announced export bans or licensing restrictions designed to protect their own food stockpiles.

As a result, prices are skyrocketing—not just for food, but also for essential agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer and fuel, that Russia has long been a key supplier of. Moreover, the ripple effects of disruptions to the fertilizer supply chain will reach consumers worldwide.

Making matters worse, the current crisis coincides with high debt levels in many developing economies around the world.

Largely due to public spending to address the challenges presented by COVID-19, about 60% of low-income countries are currently in, or at high risk of, debt distress, compared with just 30% in 2015, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“While this crisis will impact all of us around the world in significant ways, low-income economies risk devastation and potential unrest,” said Ertharin Cousin, CEO and founder of Food Systems for the Future, and a coauthor of the report. “We’re not just talking about the poorest of the poor, who are already suffering from hunger. We’re also talking about people who could recently afford a loaf of bread for their families and who now will literally be unable to do so.”

Relieving the current crisis requires, most importantly, a coordinated and immediate emergency humanitarian response by all stakeholders—governments, development institutions and banks, NGOS, and private companies—to meet the most pressing needs for humanitarian aid. They must provide not only food and financial support, but also the seeds, inputs, tools, and technical assistance needed to support in-country sustainable intensification and other crop substitution actions. The report outlines a solution set of 30 key recommendations for all stakeholders.

“There is a lot of talk about the individual components of the crisis, but it is critical that we look at things holistically and recognize the interdependence of factors ranging from rising costs of food, fertilizer, and fuel, to maxed-out debt, climate-related issues, ongoing conflicts elsewhere in the world, and COVID-19. There are multiple prongs of failure at risk of being tipped over by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” said Shalini Unnikrishnan, a managing director and partner at BCG, the global leader for Food and Nature in the firm’s Social Impact practice, and a coauthor of the report.

“Just as critically, we need a coordinated effort across all sectors to rethink and repair our food systems, making them more equitable, more resilient, and more responsive in times of great need,” Unnikrishnan continued. “Avoiding more such crises will require diversifying food production across diets, supply chains, and markets, and addressing the indebtedness, economic inequities, and market distortions that have contributed to the current crisis.”

Download the publication here.