Johannesburg, 16 Oct 2012
Africa's economic pulse has quickened. Over the past decade, six of the world's 10 fastest-growing countries were African. In eight of the past 10 years, Africa has grown faster than East Asia, including Japan. Even allowing for the knock-on effect of the northern hemisphere's slowdown, many African countries have still seen substantially higher growth than in developed countries.
It is partly Africa's enthusiasm for technology that is boosting this growth. It has more than 600 million mobile phone users - more than America or Europe. Since roads are generally dreadful, advances in communications, with mobile banking and telephonic agro-info, have been a huge boon. Around a 10th of Africa's land mass is covered by mobile Internet services - a higher proportion than in India.
"Telecommunications, banking and retailing are flourishing across Africa. Construction is booming. Private investment inflows are surging," says Simon Campbell-Young, CEO of specialist distribution house Phoenix Distribution. "This has had a knock-on effect, resulting in increased trade across many sectors, but especially in technology."
This is one of the reasons that Phoenix Distribution has expanded in the continent, opening branches in a number of African countries to meet the needs of its African resellers. In addition to its original South African, Zimbabwean and Zambian branches, the company now has operations in Nigeria, Angola, Kenya and Tanzania. This growth, Campbell-Young explains, was the result of requests from resellers requiring on-the-ground service and support as well as the opportunities offered by each country.
"When we embarked on our growth strategy, we initially focused on the South African market. But after repeated requests from African resellers who were purchasing from us, we actively evaluated potential opportunities on the continent. Not only did we have an established base of resellers in many of these countries, but Africa's strong long-term growth prospects made it a sound business decision to expand our operations into a number of African countries. Now, our Zambian business has grown to the extent that we recently moved into new premises to better serve our customers, and our other African operations are showing steady returns too."
While many of Africa's economies face serious challenges, a number of countries are among the world's most rapidly growing economies. The need for ICT products and services in these growth areas is expanding accordingly, and this acceleration is a sign of hard-earned progress and promise, says Campbell-Young. "Africa's collective GDP, at $1.6 trillion in 2008, is now roughly equal to Brazil's or Russia's, and there is massive potential. We have used this potential to create opportunities and to satisfy the unmet demands of African businesses."
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