INtheKNOW
AFRICA THE WORLD’S NEXT HYPERGROWTH BUSINESS COULD AFRICA BE THE WORLD’S NEXT HYPERGROWTH BUSINESS? THAT’S THE THOUGHT THAT STRUCK ME THE OTHER DAY AS I WAS DOING SOME RESEARCH FOR A PROJECT I AM WORKING ON. FACT IS, ALL THE INGREDIENTS ARE IN PLACE. NOW WE NEED TO FIND A WAY TO IGNITE THEM.
T
64 age group. By 2100, this will boom to 3.7 billion, with an average age of 34.2 and 64.7% of the population in the economically productive age group. Compare this to Europe, where the population is shrinking and aging. From 747 million last year, with an average age of 42.5 years and 65.2% of the population in an economically productive age group, it will decline to 629 million in 2100, with an average age of 48.2 years, and 55.2% of the population in the economically productive age group.
he hypergrowth business is every
Bottom line: Africa’s got a younger, big-
venture capitalist and investor’s
ger, more dynamic population – 17% of
dream. It’s the fabled unicorn
the world’s population, to be exact. But
that goes from nowhere to disrupting and
only about 3% of the global GDP by most
transforming their entire sector. It’s Uber,
accounts. That’s changing: according to
which took three years from being founded
World Bank data, Sub Saharan Africa’s GDP
in 2009 to reach a valuation of $18.2 billion.
growth rate has outstripped the rest of the
Or Amazon, which went from being an
world (except China) for the past 20 years.
online bookseller to a behemoth with interests in everything from cloud computing to groceries, entertainment and pharmaceuticals, and a market capitalisation of nearly $2 trillion.
LEE NAIK TRANSUNION AFRICA CEO
The consumers of the future
So why can’t Africa do the same? After all, hypergrowth isn’t necessarily limited to
More importantly, we’ve got increasingly
young, ambitious FinTechs. Any company,
active consumers, who are willing to spend
country or even continent can become
more. The number of consumers in Africa
a hypergrowth business. It just needs
stands at nearly 1.2 billion, and this will
the right raw materials, the vision to do
rise to 1.7 billion by 2030. Think about it:
something with them, and the savvy to use
more than a billion wannabe consumers in
technology to not just leapfrog, but cata-
250 million households in a region whose
pult yourself into another league.
economy is outpacing that of Europe, the US and Asia.
So, what makes Africa ready to soar?
Seven countries – Nigeria, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya, and South Africa – will soon hold half of the continent’s population, and 43% of Africans across the continent
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JANUARY
Let’s start with the people. There are a
will belong to the middle or upper classes.
lot of them – and there are about to be a
Having more people living in cities than In-
whole lot more. According to the United
dia and China combined over the next cen-
Nations, in 2019, the population of Sub-Sa-
tury will correlate to significant increases
haran Africa was 1.1 billion, with an average
in household consumption and business
age of 18.7 years, and 54.6% of the popula-
spending. Household consumption is pre-
tion in the economically productive 15 to
dicted to reach $2.5 trillion by 2030.
CEO GLOBAL MAGAZINE.COM
