In short, yes.  While sudden influxes of cash and resources can create problems, they can also create incredible opportunities.  Ndubuisi Ekekwe, founder of the non-profit African Institution of Technology, wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review in which he reports:

• In early June, Cisco Systems made a $10 million venture capitalinvestment into Cairo's emerging small businesses (not a $10 million donation).  This is one of the first of it's kind.
• Many Silicon Valley companies (Microsoft, Google, Nokia, and Blackberry, specifically) are touring Africa to recruit top college talent, launch innovation competitions, and build out Africa's technological base.

About this, Ekekwe says:

Africa will rise with the world in this age. Technology is enabling us to solve our problems in our unique ways. No longer are we importing a tool made for an American banker for a Lagos trader. When a mother can pay school fees via SMS, you can tell how far we have come.

Just ask China how much Western business can be a game-changer.  As Ekekwe points out in the article, no longer is Africa a place to merely extract natural resources; it's now a place to invest economic resources.  As more industries decide to enter Africa (and the rest of the developing world), I predict they'll see the benefits of opening facilities so they have a local presence, funding education so they have an educated workforce, and providing health care so they have a healthy workforce.  From there, the benefits are bountiful.

So, Caterpillar, General Electric, Crocs, Campbells/Kuners/Green Giant, and Ford, what are you waiting for?  Do you really need to be convinced to go sell your stuff to almost a billion people?  Ekekwe says, "the lion is roaring from Nairobi to Lagos, Cape Town to Cairo."  Ignore it at your own peril, we say.