Much has been written about Africa’s non-renewable natural wealth (oil, gas, coal and minerals) and its potential to develop her economies and the quality of life of her people, but rather less has been said about the geodata public information that influence inward investment decisions and facilitate exploration. Effective acquisition, maintenance and dissemination of geodata can act as a magnet to investment and can enable governments to understand better their natural resources in order to manage them most effectively. In recent years, many millions of dollars have been invested by bilateral and multi-lateral aid and development agencies on various geodata gathering projects in Africa, including associated capacity building and training programmes, with the intention that this would have a direct and sustainable effect on economic growth in the recipient nations.