American investors and African leaders are shmoozing at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit — a major step in U.S. efforts to establish a new relationship in Africa. 

Impact investing is the name for this new model of investment and U.S. tech companies are already doing it, according to a HuffingtonPost blog.

Hopes are pinned on the summit as a start for counteracting China, which has been capitalizing on Africa’s investment potential.

U.S. investors now turning their attention to Africa will find a continent hungry for U.S. investment, expertise, and rule of law. But can they uphold U.S. values in Africa and still compete?

Kadri Lomo is the founder of United African Fruit Company Ltd. He started a business in Ghana and has dealt with issues surrounding local and regional investment in Africa.

Here’s what Lomo said about promoting U.S. values of inclusion and social responsibility when doing business in Africa.

From HuffingtonPost.

I have seen U.S. investors both fail and succeed in attempts at their investments in Africa. One thing I have noticed is that the successful U.S. investors haven’t changed their values to compete in Africa, however, they have adjusted their business model as it deals with Africa.

They have implemented an investment model that takes social conditions as well as profit into account — by setting a framework for sustainable inclusion in their investments.

To be fair, some companies have involuntarily had to implement this new business model of investing — driven by conditions on the ground that necessitate it prior to investment, or government imposed conditions, i.e., local content laws, that force a social benefit initiative in its tenets and execution. However, their mere implementation proves that it is an acceptable framework of doing business that cannot be ignored.

And as the U.S. Fortune 500 and U.S. private equity turn their corporate gaze toward Africa, they have the chance to learn from previous investment attempts and promote this new model of interaction on the African continent.

Luckily for these U.S. investors, not only is there a name, extensive literature and an established infrastructure involving this new model of investment: impact investing; there is already a U.S. industry that has had success with this type of investment model in Africa: technology.

U.S. tech companies working in Africa are embedded with these investment principles and know how to adapt to their on-the-ground environment and form the connections that make their investments work. These companies inherently work in a paradigm that encourages open collaboration with their respective communities that necessitates an investment structure with a degree of social responsibility.

Companies like Kiva, though not necessarily profit driven, invest in companies and work with entrepreneurs in Africa who have this model. Also, for-profit companies such asMicrosoft (4Afrika) and Google (Africa Connected), have initiated social initiatives that are imbedded with their products that will eventually result in user familiarity, goodwill and increased profits.

Per the U.S. Administration, the theme of the summit is, “investing in the future by discussing ways to stimulate growth, unlock opportunities and create an enabling environment for the next generation.”

It is my hope the U.S. administration and private sector will use this gaze toward Africa as a watershed moment for that next generation in its economic relations with the African continent and use this opportunity to promote a new impact investment model based on the U.S. value of shared value.

Read more at HuffingtonPost.