5 Unique Facts about Africa

Africa is a land of incredible diversity, vibrant cultures, unparalleled natural beauty, and a dynamic history that shaped the modern world. This platform aims to educate and inspire by shedding light on the continent’s profound depth and complexity. To start your journey, here are 5 unique facts that highlight just how extraordinary Africa is:

This means that just like Europe is made up of about 45 unique countries, each with their own presidents, administrative policies, unique systems of governance at least per territory etc.

It’s the same strata in Africa. Africa is a continent with a land mass of about 31 million square kilometers (Approx) and is made up of 54 unique countries, territories and jurisdictions. No one just lives anywhere in Africa and you can’t board a plane to Africa. You board an airline to a specific African country like Cameroon, South Africa, Angola and to any of the 54 countries etc.

The people (including myself) live in specific countries which are far apart from each other Just like in Europe, living in Italy is different from living in Germany. Next time you’re in a conversation with an African, kindly ask which specific African country they live in. If you’re considering doing business on the continent, specify the country.

And anything you can do while on business meetings in Europe or America. You can do the same in Africa provided you can afford these services. This means that there are 5-star hotels where you can lodge in Africa. There is modern infrastructure, There is the internet, There are car rental and ride-hailing services, there are ‘close to skyscrapers’, even actual skyscrapers, and then there are all sorts of cuisine found in the heart of many African cities. You do not need to worry if you have to do a market visit for a few days or a few weeks. You will be comfortable.

You will love Douala, Capetown, Luanda, Libreville, Nairobi, and the many cities which cannot be listed in a brief LinkedIn post. if you’re interested in doing business in Africa, do get in touch with me or Afrique Monitor. Insert-Nightime in the city of Accra, Ghana.
Picture credit: Barnabas Laryea.

Also, Payments for services are usually prepaid for and not postpaid. if you plan on visiting any country in Africa, make provision to have some physical cash on you. You might need to have a few dollars or pounds to be able to change into local currency. The majority of vendors don’t have the capacity to accept card payments. The few who do might not have all the card option payments available. For eg. You might have a Visa card but the option available might be a MasterCard.

I know a number of city high-ranking hotels and service providers do make card options available but I am comparing with the general merchandising landscape across all the countries. When you come on a business trip to Sub-Saharan Africa, to avoid unnecessary embarrassment while paying for meals, grocery shopping, and other taxi services, I advise you to always carry some cash you can exchange. Thank me later.

For market research, business development, and business consulting services within West and Central Africa. Get in touch with Afrique Monitor

These blocks are drawn along location lines and language lines. Similar administrative, trade and governance policies exist in each unique block and generally doing business among the members of each group or block is easier.

Usually trading within one country in a specific African block eases expansion access into the other countries in the same region. Trading along the various blocks can be as different as night and day! Eg. The way West Africa works is entirely different from how Central Africa operates. Here are the regional Economic and Administrative groupings.

• The West African Block is called the ECOWAS and it consists of all West African countries. English and French is the primary language of the ECOWAS.
  
• Central African Block-CEMAC consisting of the Central African countries.
  French is the primary language of CEMAC with one Spanish speaking country.
  
• Southern African countries have the SADC -consists of the Southern African countries.
  Primary language is English
  
• EAC- East African Economic Zone.
  Primary languages being English,French and Swahili
  
• Arab-Mahgreb Union(UMA) consisting of the North Africa countries. Arabic and
  English being the primary languages spoken and used administratively in North Africa.
  If you are interested in our amazing Africa. Feel free to get in touch.
  

Getting information in Africa can be very difficult and mostly costly compared to other markets As a market researcher who has worked in and out of African markets.

Information is not readily available if you are researching a number of industries and products. Especially online. Usually you will come across some data but mostly outdated data. This is because of no documentation or sometimes outdated documentation methods employed by organizations, the civil service and other relevant bodies.

Sometimes documents are in analog (physical) and not transcribed digitally. Eg. It’s difficult to find company reports on websites on African companies whereas in the US
market, it’s very easy to come across such information. Most information needed must be done through primary research per project. If you want realtime and true data. Secondly people don’t easily warm up to interviews around their companies, businesses, industry etc.

Culturally, Secrecy is somewhat viewed as modest within the continent. This makes access to information difficult to a researcher but again, It does call for innovating other workable approaches during research to glean facts and data
you want.

In actual fact, this makes quality research more costly around African markets as it’s important to verify information often “on the ground”. Next time you want to research Africa, Put this into consideration. For your market research and business development needs contact us at Afrique Monitor .