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.
* Because of its success in mobile communications, Kenya has the highest share of the population with access to financial services—more than 70 percent—in all of sub-Saharan Africa.
* 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.
* Key sectors driving growth are telecommunications, banking, retail, construction, agriculture and resources.
* Africa’s collective GDP is expected to rise to $2.6 trillion by 2020 from $1.6 trillion in 2013.
* 80 percent of Africa’s combined GDP currently emanates from Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.
* Dakar (Senegal), Ibadan (Nigeria), Kano (Nigeria) and Rabat (Morocco) will develop markets more than $10 billion by 2020.
* Since 2003, GDP across Sub-Saharan Africa’s 48 countries has risen an average of 5 percent to 7 percent per year.
* In 2012, five African countries outgrew China; 21 outgrew India
* Africa had six of 10 of the world’s fastest-growing economies in the decade to 2010.
* 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.
* Africa’s new consumer class is driving economic growth and diversification away from commodities. According to McKinsey, four sectors will produce $2.5 trillion in annual revenue over the eight years beginning 2010: consumer ($520 billion); agriculture ($220 billion); infrastructure ($130 billion); commodities ($110 billion).
* Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania, are among the world’s top 10 fastest growing economies, based on 2011-2015 estimates by The Economist.
* 30 African countries will be middle income by 2030.
CONSUMER SPENDING
* Spending by African consumers is projected to rival that of Russia and India, with Sub-Saharan Africa’s consumers generating up to $1.6 trillion by 2020. equivalent to annual average spending of $520 billion.
* Africa’s combines consumer spending in 2012 was $1.3 trillion.
* Consumer spending in sub-Saharan Africa grew at a compound average rate of 4 percent in the decade 2000 to 2010.
* 856 million Sub-Saharan Africa consumers spent an estimated $600 billion in 2010.
* By 2020, 128 million households will have discretionary income, up 50 percent from 2010.
* Top consumer markets by 2020 will be food and beverages, housing, non-food consumer goods, health care, telecommunications, banking and education.
* Africa’s dry hair market—as the market for weaves, wigs and extensions is known—is estimated to be worth $6 billion a year and growing, attracting global consumer giants such as Unilever and L’Oreal, who are investing heavily in African hair care products.
* By 2020 the largest consumer markets will be Alexandria (Egypt), Cairo (Egypt), Cape Town (South Africa), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Lagos (Nigeria).
* By 2030, the top 18 cities are projected to have $1.3 trillion combined spending power.
* 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.
