“950 million African consumers have more to offer than you think,” said Prof Vijay Mahajan, author of the book Africa Rising, during his visit to South Africa to address the World Economic Forum.

Speaking at a business briefing held in Johannesburg under the auspices of inter alia the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), Mahajan said that despite Africa’s unique political, economic and resource challenges, the true wealth of the continent is not its resources - it is its emerging consumer market and the African entrepreneurs and business leaders serving this market.  Entrepreneurs and business leaders are finding opportunities in almost every industry and every country across the continent.

“Africa is the ‘new’ China or India in terms of marketing and global business development opportunities,” said Mahajan.  “In fact, Africa is richer than India on the basis of gross national income (GNI) per capita, and a dozen African countries have a higher GNI per capita than China.  This market offers as big a market opportunity as India and China, it is richer, developing faster and provides more opportunities for building consumer markets and businesses than you might think,” he said.  “It is celebration time for Africa.”

“South Africa has an obligation to play the same role as Singapore did in Asia – your country has created Fortune 500 companies,” continued Mahajan.

Mahajan, former dean of the Indian School of Business, travelled the length and breadth of Africa to study the African market.

“There will soon be a billion consumers on the continent of Africa; this is one of the fastest growing markets in the world; it is also one of the youngest with 41% of its population under the age of 15 years.  There are vast opportunities and the telecommunications companies have proved that borders don’t matter.”

Prof Nick Binedell, Director of GIBS, pointed out that the business opportunities in agriculture remain unexplored in Africa.  “These need to be exploited so that Africa can not only feed itself but the rest of the world,” he said.  “There have been large scale purchases of land in Africa by countries like Russia, China and some in the Middle East.”

Binedell pointed out that the experience of South African companies in Africa in recent years showed that Africa is ‘open for business’.  In spite of regulatory and other challenges, leading South Africa companies have made major investments and now play a significant role across the continent.

“The hopeful message from Professor Mahajan is that the resilience and entrepreneurial ability of African people is the great source of our future economic potential as a continent.  We should take full advantage of this capacity.  The examples that he shared are all good evidence for the possibilities that lie ahead,” concluded Binedell.

Ends
Word count: 538

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Loraine Harris/Anne Vicente
Corporate Communications Consultants (Pty) Ltd
TEL : (011) 783 8926
Email : This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

ON BEHALF OF :
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
University of Pretoria
TEL: (011) 771 4000
CONTACT: Nicola Wilson, Communications Manager
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it