Spotlight: Market Trends

Young Masai male checks mobile device.

Emerging Business Models Help Smartphone Affordability & Africa’s Digital Pioneers

For many mass-market consumers in Africa, smartphones are out of reach, thus limiting the ability of digital businesses in sub-Saharan Africa to grow and achieve scale. New business models are emerging to help.

July 2017
Addis, Ababa

Ethiopia is the World’s Fastest Growing Economy

Three of the world's fastest growing economies in 2017 are African, and Ethiopia leads the pack with a GDP growth rate 2.4x faster than the global average.

July 2017
africa-mobile-phones

Sub-Saharan Africa is the World’s Fastest Growing Mobile Market

By 2020, sub-Saharan Africa will have more than half a billion unique mobile subscribers (around half of its population), offering great opportunities for social & commercial innovation.

July 2017
solar-africa

U.S. Entrepreneurs Target Africa’s Solar Opportunity

A slew of VC-funded, American solar energy startups seek to profit by electrifying African communities, per Bill McKibben in the latest issue of the New Yorker.

June 2017
fraym-african-urban-market-index

Cairo, Johannesburg, & Lagos are Africa’s Three Biggest ‘Markets’

According to Fraym's Urban Markets Index which estimates economic activity, consumer size, & connectivity to determine ultimate "market size."

June 2017
africa-market-types-pwc

Six Basic Types of African Countries

A strategist's classification of the 54 African countries into six clusters, because "Africa’s markets are too diverse for one business model to be successful everywhere."

June 2017