Emerging markets investors would be wise to look at the growth in sub-Saharan Africa.

by Bill Powell, contributor

FORTUNE - Scanning the global economy for hot spots and opportunities, most business executives, no matter where they are, usually think first about China and India, the two biggest and most rapidly growing of the so called BRICs (though as one participant at the Fortune/TIME/CNN Global Forum, which concluded today in Capetown said, "you should drop the R--for Russia-- and insert another, for Indonesia. The fastest growing emerging economies are the "BIICS.")

Not so fast.  Part of the point of the Capetown Forum was to shine a business spotlight not only on South Africa, but on all the countries of sub Saharan Africa, and to educate those who are largely ignorant about what is happening economically in many of its 48 nations.

I'm was one of the ignorant ones -- I've spent  most of my career as a foreign correspondent in east Asia -- but after three days of drinking from the fire hose, I've learned, along with a lot of the other attendees at the conference, that any number of African nations need to be included on any list of emerging "Hot Spots."  An illuminating report on growth and opportunity in Africa by the McKinsey Global Institute had a lot of the conference goers shaking their heads and saying, in effect, "I had no idea…'' More