Africa

POPULATION
* Africa’s population hit the 1 billion mark in 2010, with annual growth rates at 2.0 percent and 1.6 percent in Northern and Southern Africa, respectively, 2.5 percent and 2.7 percent in Western and Middle Africa, respectively, and the African average at about 2.4 per cent.
* Africans are expected to number 2 billion by 2050.
* Africa has the second highest population after Asia.
* Africa accounts for 14 percent of the world’s population.
* There are more than 200 million youth in Africa, comprising more than 20 percent of the continent’s population.
* Close to 70 percent of Africa's population is aged below 25, making it the youngest continent in the world. For example, in Kenya, young people are close to 75 percent of the population.
* Uganda has the youngest population in the world, with a fertility rate of 6.2 children.
* Rates of urbanization in Africa are the highest in the world. By 2020, 66 percent of the continent’s population are expected to live in cities and be of working age.
* Poverty levels of Africa’s population are expected to decline to 20 percent by 2020, from around 43 percent in 1995.
* Africa presents the highest proportion of illiterate youth in the world, estimated at about 25 percent, according to the African Developmetn Bank's 2013 Economic Outlook.  Estimates suggest that about 133 million young people, accounting for over 50 percent of the youth population in Africa, lack formal education.
* About five million graduates are produced annually by African universities.


FINANCIAL SERVICES
* Kenya has become a global leader in mobile banking. Safaricom’s M-Pesa service redefined retail banking by making mobile phones all-in-one credit cards, ATMs, money transfer offices, and branches.
* Africa has 29 stock exchanges.
* 80 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s adult population are unbanked.
* Bain & Company released a report in 2011 projecting double digit growth in Africa’s financial services sector is projected to see double digit growth by 2020.
* Africa’s retail banking sector is projected to grow 40 percent by 2020 from 2011.
* Diaspora remittances exceed foreign aid for the entire continent by 50 percent.
* Diaspora remittances rival foreign direct investment in many African countries. For example, Kenyans abroad now send home more than $1 billion a year, Nigerians $10 billion

ECONOMIC GROWTH
* Africa’s growth rate is expected to average 7 percent annually for the next 20 years.
* Africa’s collective GDP is expected to rise to $2.6 trillion by 2020.
* Africa had six of 10 of the world’s fastest-growing economies of the decade to 2010 and is projected to claim seven of 10 to 2015.
* Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow at a faster clip than Brazil and India and claim seven of the world’s 10 fastest growing economies by 2015.
* In the past decade, two-thirds of Africa’s GDP growth came from non-commodity sectors, including wholesale and retail, transportation, telecommunications, and manufacturing.
* Among the five sub-regions, West and East Africa are expected to be the fastest growing at 6.6 percent and 6.0 percent, respectively, in 2013.
* Central Africa is forecast to sustain moderate growth of 4.7 per cent in 2013 and 4.4 per cent in 2014, with strong commodity production and export demand.
* Growth in North Africa (including Libya) is expected to remain strong at 4.2 per cent in 2013 and pick up to 4.6 per cent in 2014 as the political environment normalizes and economic activity gains momentum.
* Southern Africa is projected to grow at 4.0 per cent in 2013 and 4.3 per cent in 2014. The economy of South Africa is forecast to grow at 3.1 per cent, reflecting a stabilizing international environment and manufacturing.
* Growth prospects for oil-exporting countries will remain robust at 5.1 percent from sustained strong demand for oil and high prices. Non-oil activities will contribute strongly to the economic outturn in several countries.
* Sub-Saharan Africa’s 2008 GDP of $1.6 trillion equaled that of Brazil and Russia.
* Between 2000 and 2011, Equatorial Guinea was the world’s fastest-growing economy, with output growth averaging 17 percent.

FASTEST GROWING ECONOMIES IN 2012 (Percent change over 2011)
* Sierra Leone 20.0
* Niger, 11.0
* Cote d’Ivoire, 8.2
* Angola, 8.1
* Ethiopia, 7.8
* Rwanda, 7.7
* Ghana, 7.5
* Eritrea, 7.5
* Zambia, 6.7
Compare China, 7.8 percent; India, 4.1 percent; Brazil, 0.9 percent

CONSUMER SPENDING
* Spending by African consumers to projected to rival Russia and India, reaching $1.4 trillion by 2020.
* By 2020, 128 million households will have discretionary income.
* Bob McDonald, CEO of U.S. consumer-goods giant Procter & Gamble, describes Africa as the company’s “next frontier.”
* Currently, only eight percent of Africans earn $10,000 or more a year, with 82 percent earning less than $3,600.

LABOR/EMPLOYMENT
* Africa’s labor force is projected to rise by 122 million between 2010 and 2020, creating a continent-wide labor force of 500 million by the end of the decade.
* Africa’s labor force has been growing strongly, expanding by 91 million over the past decade, yet only 37 million of the new entrants were employed in wage-paying jobs, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.
* 25 million young people will enter Africa’s labor force each year by 2025.
* The youth population currently constitutes about 37 percent of the total labor force.
* Young people make up about 60 percent of total unemployment in Africa.
* The majority of unemployed people in Africa are aged 15-24.
* The informal sector of the economy accounts for about 90 percent of the jobs created on the Continent.

INVESTMENT/REMITTANCES
* External financial flows into Africa hit a record in 2012 and are expected to top $200 billion in 2013.
* Over the last two years Walmart completed a $2.4 billion acquisition of South African retailer Massmart
* IBM announced a $1.5 billion investment in African-focused technology company Bharti Airtel.
* IBM in 2012 opened its first African research lab in Nairobi, Kenya. IBM Research - Africa is IBM’s 12^th global laboratory and the first science and technology research lab on the continent conducting both applied and far-reaching exploratory research.
* U.S. private-equity giant the Carlyle Group launched a sub-Saharan Africa investment practice.
* Apple is expanding shops for iPhone sales across the continent to meet demand of a mobile market predicted to reach more than a billion users by 2020.
* Rwanda ranks eighth in the world in the “Starting a Business” category of the global “Ease of Doing Business” index.

INFRASTRUCTURE
* At the 15^th Summit of the African Union Summit, held in Kampala, Uganda, in July 2010, heads of state endorsed the multi-billion dollar Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), a joint initiative of The African Union (AU), The African Development Bank, and New Partnership for African Development. www.pidafrica.org.
* Africa’s infrastructure grid—roads, bridges, power—represents a $1 trillion investment prospect over the next 10-11 years, according to the International Finance Corp.
* Road access rate is only 34 percent, compared with 50 percent in other parts of the developing world, and subsequently, transport costs are higher by up to 100 percent.
* Around $45 billion a year is already being spent on infrastructure, about half of the $93 billion needed annually to meet Africa’s growth and development goals.”
* IBM’s global Computer Pain Survey of 15 cities ranks Nairobi as the fourth most congested in the world.
* Aviation in Africa supports 6.7 million jobs and $67.8 billion in in economic activity, according to IATA.
* The total number of accidents for African airlines dropped from 18 in 2010 to 8 in 2011.

AGRIBUSINESS
* Agriculture and agribusiness together are projected to be a US$ 1 trillion industry in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 (compared to $ 313 billion in 2010).
* Agricultural production and agribusiness together constitute an average of around 45 percent of the economy of Sub-Saharan Africa.
* Urban food markets are set to increase fourfold to exceed US$ 400 billion by 2030, requiring major agribusiness investments in processing, logistics, market infrastructure, and retail networks.
* Rice is Africa’s largest and fastest-growing import, valued at US$ 3.5 billion in 2009 or nearly half of total consumption.
* In West Africa, 75 percent of agriculture-related firms are micro or small enterprises, 20 percent are semi-industrial, and 5 percent are industrial. Employees are typically family members, and 50 percent to 90 percent are women.
* Assuming that the 6 percent growth target set by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development is met to 2030, and marginal expenditures on food are at 0.5 (down from about 0.6 currently), total food and beverage markets in Sub-Saharan Africa will reach $1,000 billion by 2030, up from $313 billion currently.
* At around $1 billion, the total intraregional trade in food staples is a tiny fraction of Africa’s $25 billion food import bill.

DIGITAL LANDSCAPE
* Mobile innovation in Africa has fostered a new generation of technology entrepreneurs. Kenya now hosts *iHub, a digital and physical open source center providing community resources to tech entrepreneurs to develop ideas and connect to investors.
* Silicon Valley venture capital funds are eyeing African investment opportunities in what is now being called Silicon Savannah.
* The African IT market is expected to grow from $8.5 billion to $12.5 billion by 2015. http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/34710.wss

MINERAL WEALTH
* Africa is estimated to host 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves, and an even higher proportion of deposits of gold, platinum, diamonds and manganese
* South Africa produces three-quarters of the world’s platinum, 40 percent of chromium and more than 15 percent of gold and manganese.
* Guinea accounts for 8 percent of world bauxite production.
*  The Democratic Republic of the Congo accounted in 2010 for half of production the world’s cobalt, one quarter of industrial diamonds, 14 percent of tantalum, and 3 percent of copper and tin.
* Zambia is estimated to rank sixth in the world in the production of copper ore and fifth in the production of cobalt ore.
* Botswana accounts for around 20 percent of diamond exports.
* Africa’s gold producers – mainly Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Tanzania – together account for 9 percent of gold production, double the share in 2000.
* Sierra Leone is the 10th-ranked producer of diamonds by volume and the third-ranked producer of rutile, a heavy mineral used in paints, ceramics and plastics.
* Namibia and Niger are respectively the fourth-and fifth-ranked producers of uranium, together accounting for about 17 percent of world output.
* Guinea has some of the world’s highest-grade iron ore reserves.
* BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, also holds four licenses for iron ore exploration in Liberia.
* Proven oil reserves in Africa increased by 15 million barrels between 2010 and 2011.

PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT
* An acre in a prime zone in Accra can cost up to US$2 million.
* The mortgage market is underdeveloped or non-existent in the majority of the continent. The mortgage to GDP ratio for Ghana remains under 1 percent, compared to 32 percent for South Africa (SARB, 2011) and 19.6 percent for Namibia (Bank of Namibia 2011).
* Challenges of accessing funding for property developments in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Although some developments in South Africa are funded with up to 100 percent  debt, in the rest of the continent developers often need to put down around 50 percent in cash.
* In the first quarter of 2012, the value of prime property in the world’s key cities fell by 0.4 percent, while that in Nairobi rose by 24 percent making it, globally, the strongest performer.
http://www.africastrictlybusiness.com