Citi's Vikram Pandit and Hope for Africa

I attended BusinessWeek's Captains of Industry event at the 92nd Street Y last evening. BW editor in chief Steve Adler interviewed Citigroup's Vikram Pandit, the guy who didn't screw up Citi but has to fix it. Pandit is a boring interview. Very careful. Must have thrilled the Citi PR woman who was sitting next to me. He said one interesting thing, though. When asked where he sees the biggest growth opportunities for Citi, he said it's going to be the emerging markets like India and China. They're not the emerging markets, really, any more. They have emerged. Then he made an interesting prediction: Africa will follow Asia on the path to economic development. He named South Africa, northern Africa, and West Africa as interesting spots to Citi. Memo to the enterprising: Get in now.