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Many companies consider Africa as a dangerous place to do business. This is mainly because there is a lot of negative publicity that surrounds the place and people tend to hear and remember it better than all the positives in the region. Viewing Africa as an unworthy place to expand a company's market is a huge mistake.
Africa is a promising emerging market. Truly, there are issues such as wars and corruption on the continent, but this holds for South America, for example, as well; however, it hasn't stopped companies from expanding there. Also, there are 53 countries in Africa and while some hold many disasters, others have a plethora of positive things happening. In the past few years Africa has seen high rises, well-doing stock markets, and has been open to new innovations and advancements.
There are many possibilities in agribusiness, infrastructure, and tourism. The best opportunities can be found in the southern part of the continent - Mozambique, South Africa, Mauritius, and Namibia. Furthermore, Ghana and Botswana have huge potential in ports and fisheries. Moreover, the continent provides the world with a lot of petroleum. For instance, the top supplier of oil to China is Angola. Another area that has been growing very fast in Africa is telecommunications. In the past decade cell phone use there grew at an annual rate of over 50%.
Africa has a consumer base of 900 million people. It is a fact that half of them live on a dollar a day, however this does not hold for the other half. People in Africa, just as anywhere else, are hungry for new technologies and products. Lastly, Africa offers one of the highest returns on direct foreign investment in the world. The risk of investing there remains high just as in any other emerging market, but it holds great business possibilities that should be explored.
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