Page 5 - EXPORT GUIDE 2 AFRICA

2 Many governments within the African continent Doing
BUSINESS
have put in place stringent requirements to
ensure their consumers are protected from with
sub-standard products and goods AFRICA

5. More investment in agriculture,
industrialization & technology 6. Africa’s embracing the knowledge economy

Unlike the past when most African countries Although mobile penetration is growing at
depended on oil and mineral resources as the an impressive rate, the continent is slowly
bedrock of their economies, the face of waking up to technological opportunities as
business is now changing as more African more than 80% of the African continent is still
nations are now diversifying into non-oil unconnected.
sectors. For instance, Africa’s most developed
economies like South Africa, Morocco and International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Egypt, have been able to grow their agricul- recorded that only 16% of Africa’s 1 billion
ture, manufacturing, and retail and hospitali- people use the Internet, half the rate in Asia
ty sector to create more jobs. Paci c and below a global average of 36%.

The Moroccan government for example set a African Development Bank (AfDB) also
goal for the country to become the industrial reported that the information and communi-
automotive supplier for Europe. Today, the ty technology sector contributed just 7% to
sector employs more than 60,000 people. the continent’s GDP last year, and Africa’s
wealthiest still amass their fortunes through
resources.
However, despite these shortcomings,
technology is making an impression reducing
Africa’s youth unemployment rate. It is also
making social services more accessible to
individuals.

The continent of Africa is
seeing tremendous
growth in both it’s social
and economic status.

Africa is home to 6 of the
top 10 fastest growing
Africa is now home to more international
private rms. This is due to the increasing Also, with about 60% of the world’s unculti- economies in the world
adoption of seamless business policies, vated arable land embedded in the
lowered corporate taxes, and strengthened continent, African countries are now paying
regulatory and legal systems in some attention to agriculture as governments and In Kenya, mobile money transfer system
countries. foreign investors contribute substantial M-Pesa, launched by the country’s largest
investment into farming for consumption telecoms operator Safaricom is helping to
The World Bank’s “Doing Business 2014: and economic growth. make a huge economic impact. With a total
Understanding Regulations for Small, transaction of about US$1 billion per month,
Medium & Large-Size Enterprises” released in More so, in a number of countries particularly the technology service has enabled about
October 2013 reported that sub-Saharan Kenya, which has seen the birth of Africa rst 67% of Kenyan adults to access banking.
Africa continues to record a large number of tech incubator- the ihub, the role of technolo-
reforms aimed at easing the regulatory gy in economic growth is of utmost impor- Internet access and broader adoption of
burden on local entrepreneurs, with 66 tance as large multinational corporations and Smartphone can help increase technological
reforms adopted in the past years (June 2, government agencies now pay close and economic growth in Africa.Industry
2013 – June 1, 2015). attention to developments in the tech sector Experts also believe that economic gains
as regards socio-economic in uence, job powered by better and cheaper internet
na 67, Zambia 83, Morocco 87, Namibia 98 creation and its contribution to GDP. The access and broader adoption of Smartphone
and Cape Verde 121 are testament to the Kenya government also launched Konza City, can help increase technological and econom-
growth in ease of doing business in Africa. reportedly said to be Africa’s silicon savannah. ic growth in Africa.