Theresa May’s decision to go dancing not once but twice in a week suggests a surprising level of confidence on the part of the embattled prime minister.

Theresa May busts out dance moves one more time on Africa trip Read more

Her three-day quickstep around Africa may be the last time before Christmas that a week in politics will be dominated by anything other than Brexit negotiations and questions about leaders.

But the reality is that her short stay in the continent also underlines the scale of the task Britain faces in reinventing itself as an influential global player after quitting the European Union.

In Africa, there is little doubting the opportunity. The continent boasts five of the world’s fastest growing economies – in Kenya, the recent growth rate is 5% to 6% – and skyscrapers dominate its most prosperous capital cities. Poverty and, increasingly, inequality remain serious problems: so too is the need to create jobs – around 18m a year – in a continent full of young people.

It is this kind of logic that prompted May to emphasise a trade-first strategy in her keynote speech in Cape Town, and even the optimistic goal of overhauling the US as the leading G7 investor in Africa during the first visit by a British prime minister to Africa since 2013.

Britain, for all the historic links, has latterly been increasingly absent from economic development allowing others, most notably China (not a G7 member) to seek to expand its influence by building infrastructure and trade.

It was a point made repeatedly in Kenya, where no British prime minister has visited since Margaret Thatcher in 1988. The last time this happened, the Daily Nation newspaper noted ironically, “Land Rover was the official government car, East African Industries [now Unilever] was market leader and most Kenyans banked at Barclays”.

A week after May’s flying visit, which saw her take in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, in three days, Beijing will host a two-day China-Africa summit chaired by president Xi Jinping. Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, who will fly out to China next week, said at a business forum with May looking on: “We are not looking to China. China is looking to Africa.”

There are concerns about China too, in particular the debt load that African countries are taking on to service Chinese infrastructure projects, such as the Mombasa to Nairobi line in Kenya, completed last year to replace the old British built railway, or the string of new airport terminals currently being constructed in Nigeria’s capital Abuja and elsewhere.

Yet, while May did bring with her construction companies in her trade delegation, the prime minister’s pitch was focused on a mixture of security cooperation – training for soldiers fighting Islamists in both Nigeria and Kenya – and an emphasis on providing financial and professional services, meaning the City of London.

During a three-hour stop at Lagos, May briefly met Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, shortly after the government had highlighted a commitment he has made to list his $10bn cement business in London. Non-executive board members of his firm Dangote Cement include Sir Mick Davis – the former mining boss who is the Conservative party’s chief executive – and Cherie Blair, both appointed to give the company international investor appeal.

Keeping Africa’s growing cadre of billionaires happy will pay some dividends; it was not surprising that one of the most senior members of the trade delegation was David Schwimmer, the London Stock Exchange’s chief executive.

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May’s challenge, however, is whether Britain can maintain a high level of focus on Africa when Brexit dominates the day-to-day political reality. In the countries she visited, interest in May’s presence was at least noticeable – there were large billboards with her picture and name dotted around Lagos airport when she arrived.

Yet, her speech in South Africa in which she vowed to tie aid spending to trade and security priorities was intended to placate the right on her party who are unhappy with the government’s continuing commitment to spend 0.7% of GDP on aid. Meanwhile, South African journalists present wanted May to give her opinion on the country’s controversial land reform programme, and whether it is right to expropriate white farmers, rather than interrogate anything she said.

Play Video 1:13 Oh dear! A brief history of politicians who tried to dance

Number 10 also dripped out other unrelated announcements to the journalists accompanying her on the trip: such as a proposed ban on young people buying energy drinks.

It is almost certainly too much to expect a three-day tour to transform Britain’s post-Brexit trading prospects in Africa, but the fact that the most memorable aspect of the trip were May’s attempts at dancing demonstrates the limits of what can be achieved on most foreign tours.

On the other hand, Number 10 was not unhappy that her gawky, awkward efforts against the backdrop of a Cape Town school made her seem at least more human. Ahead of what will be a bumpy autumn, May needs all the support she can get.