Hadley Malcolm

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Africa's energy infrastructure needs a $300 billion upgrade, and U.S. companies should be taking note because the continent boasts some of the world's best markets for business growth in the coming decades, U.S. executives and African officials say.

As President Obama kicks off the first-ever U.S.- Africa Leaders Summit this week, hundreds of U.S. businesses and African leaders are expected to gather in the nation's capital to discuss ways to increase investments there.

At an event Monday at Washington's Newseum, panelists spoke to Africa's need for infrastructure and energy in order to thrive economically, and how U.S. businesses can play a crucial role in providing services.

"The energy deficit is one of the major constraining factors to growth in Africa," said President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana. "Providing sufficient power at affordable rates as efficiently as possible is going to be the key driver for growth."

With a growing middle class that's wealthier and more educated than ever, and a population that's primarily younger than 35, the African continent is expected to be home to the largest global workforce by 2040. Economic growth in the sub-Saharan region is expected to reach 5.4% in 2014, compared with 4.6% for the world's emerging economies, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Nearly $1 billion in deals are expected to be announced at Tuesday's U.S.-Africa Business Forum, where more than 300 American business executives and African heads of state will meet in an effort to boost private-sector investment on the continent.

General Electric announced a $2 billion investment Monday toward infrastructure, skills training and supply-chain development. GE says Africa is its "most promising growth region." The company generated $5.2 billion in revenue on the continent in 2013.

Some U.S. initiatives are already in place. Last year Obama announced Power Africa, an effort to increase access to electricity on the continent with a pledge to invest $7 billion by 2018. More than two-thirds of sub-Saharan Africa lacks access to electricity.

South Africa's energy resources, which include coal and shale gas, could potentially fuel development regionally, South Africa President Jacob Zuma said Monday at the National Press Club. The country recently lifted a 2011 moratorium and decided to license energy companies to explore South Africa's shale gas resources.

"We are not looking at energy only as a country," he said. "We are looking at it from a regional point of view and also from a continental point of view."

U.S. businesses are lagging when it comes to capitalizing on Africa's economic potential, perhaps scared away by the continent's history of corruption and unaware of the opportunities, says Michael Bloomberg, whose organization Bloomberg Philanthropies is sponsoring the business forum with the Department of Commerce.

"American businesses aren't familiar enough with the Africa of today," Bloomberg said during a call with media Monday. "It's not this place that history has left behind. It's using and benefiting from modern medicine, technology, communication, transportation and becoming an economic powerhouse."

Africa represents an opportunity to both build relationships with a region that could become a bigger economic player globally in the coming decades and for businesses to foster growth at home.

"American companies can help grow their businesses and help African countries build a better economic future at the same time," U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said Monday. "There's an enormous desire for our goods and services. The technology we have to offer in terms of what our businesses can bring to the table is in high demand."

American companies should look forward to doing business with Africa's people, says GE Africa CEO Jay Ireland, who has lived the past 3½ years in Nairobi, Kenya.

"Its biggest asset is probably its people," he says of Africa. "Everyone think it's resources. But the people are tremendous. The optimism, the innovation, the real capability of the people to really overcome a lot of odds and continue to grow. That, to me, is what makes me an optimist about Africa."

Contributing: Donna Leinwand Leger