Pan African Flag – Image Courtesy Pixabay
IORMA Webinar: Africa – the next Big Business Opportunity
14 May 2020
View the video of the whole webinar here
Contributors
Dr Mphu Ramatlapeng, non-executive director of Anglo-American plc and Lesotho Alliance Insurance, Lesotho’s former Minister of Health and currently Executive Vice-President of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI).
Vicus Bouwer, IORMA’s Director for Africa and CEO of Retail X Global. An accountant,Vicus has spent the last twenty years working for some of the major retailers in South Africa. In 2013, he joined Broll Property Group which operates across Sub-Saharan Africa. He brings this experience to share with IORMA members.
Ian Thomas is a highly experienced International business man, with a first class record in creating organic growth in Export markets across many diverse markets. With wide experience in doing business in Europe, USA and Asia, Ian has run dynamic sales teams in highly technically demanding business environments.
With knowledge gained in manufacturing, process industries, power stations, medical devices and environmental products Ian has an impressive record of success. A further 20 years in consultancy (a fellow of the Institute for Independent Business) has broadened this experience. In addition Ian trains B2B companies in Selling (Entrepreneurship), Negotiation and Management Skills.
Once again IORMA brought together a distinguished panel who have considerable business, political, health and technological experience. They aim to provide a flavour of the opportunities and challenges facing Africa, a continent of 1.2bn people whose median age is under 20 and with 75% under 35! All in 60 minutes!
Africa has the fastest growing middle class which is estimated to be over 300m people or 34% of the population. Mobile phone ownership is growing fast but less than half are smart phones except in South Africa where the penetration is higher.
The pandemic has been slower to take hold in Africa than Europe, helped by having a young and less internationally mobile population. But there are fears that should it take hold, medical resources would be wholly inadequate.
According to the African Development Bank’s report published before the full impact of the pandemic was fully understood, Africa’s economic growth stabilized at 3.4% in 2019 and is expected to pick up to 3.9% in 2020 and 4.1%in 2021 but to remain below historical highs.
Growth’s fundamentals were thought to be improving, with a gradual shift from private consumption toward investment and exports. For the first time in a decade, investment accounted for more than half the continent’s growth, with private consumption accounting for less than one third.
The 2020 Outlook highlights, however, that growth has been less than inclusive. Only about a third of African countries achieved inclusive growth, reducing both poverty and inequality.
Despite progress in recent decades, Africa still lags behind other developing regions in education and skill development. Policy actions were proposed that included measures to improve both the quantity and the quality of education in rural areas – something UK firms could help to address using technology.
Join us for an illuminating insight into a region of the world which does not attract the objective in-depth analysis that other regions do.