Business
The Cheetah Generation: Young, rich and African
Like many of the Cheetah Generation, Gachara’s success is tied to Kenya’s rapid economic growth and social change, especially the rise of a new breed of consumers willing to spend money on discretionary goods. Her businesses have tapped into a fast-growing market for fashion, beauty and style in East Africa. “There is a growing middle-class here and these women have money to spend,” she says. “There’s much more money around than there was, maybe, 10 years ago. That’s why fashion is growing: people can now buy the designs.”
Business opportunities in the arts and other creative industries, unheard of just a few years ago, are also emerging. “Lots of Kenyan entrepreneurs are trying to do something different and something new, especially in the creative space,” says Gachara. “There is a lot going on in Nairobi in terms of fashion, arts, music and film. It is a very fun, cosmopolitan, vibrant place to be.”
One sector adding to the vibrancy is information technology, especially mobiles. In the past decade, hundreds of millions of Africans have acquired a phone for the first time. Smart phones costing less than US$100 are available in Africa and industry insiders say the next price point being targeted “is US$50 if not lower”. The arrival of affordable access to the internet on phones has added a new dimension to Africa’s mobile revolution.
Governments in East Africa have done a lot to liberalize telecoms and IT over the past decade and firms in the region have pioneered the low-cost delivery of financial services via mobiles. Kenya has been dubbed “Silicon Savannah” because of its enthusiasm for IT and rapid uptake of mobile-phone services
Onfon Media, the firm founded by Dennis Makori, has thrived by providing SMS marketing, SMS voting and mobile banking services. He says accessing the internet by mobile is now taking Africa by storm. “It is changing the landscape completely,” he adds. “There are so many opportunities coming out that now it’s a matter of getting an idea, tossing it up, taking it to market and seeing how the market responds.”
A focal point for Nairobi’s lively tech scene is a hip, open-plan office called iHub. Along with an espresso bar and a foosball table, it offers young Kenyan tech entrepreneurs a workspace and access to mentors who can help fine-tune new business ideas. The center has 16,000 members and has spawned more than 150 small tech firms. Josiah Mugambi, 35, iHub’s executive director, says many of the young entrepreneurs are self-taught computer programmers working on mobile phone apps relevant to African consumers. “We encourage people here to focus on problems people are facing in different parts of the country or the continent,” he says. “It is then a matter of figuring out what solutions are applicable and whether there is a market for them.” Sometimes, relatively simple, low-tech solutions have proven popular with Africa’s large rural populations.
A striking characteristic of the Kenyan entrepreneurs I met was their self-assurance and international focus. “The world is ours for the taking,” says James Kabiru, a 40-year-old tech entrepreneur who operates out of iHub. His company, OliveTreeHub.com, provides customized business services via mobile apps, including one that allows small firms to monitor and manage staff using smart phones. He believes new technologies offer global opportunities for young African entrepreneurs. “About 70 percent of Kenya’s population is below the age of 35 – and we are bright. It’s time the world started looking this way.” His bravado is not without substance.
The Cheetah Generation is part of an African economic success story that is often overshadowed by the torrent of negative news about the continent. Several African nations have been among the world’s fastest-growing economies; Rwanda and Uganda have consistently expanded at rates of 8 percent a year over the past decade. And despite the recent Ebola crisis, the World Bank predicts Africa will be one of the world’s fastest-growing regions in coming years. Last October, the bank forecast the continent’s economy to grow 5.2 percent a year over the next two years, a pace most advanced nations can only dream about.
Africa’s healthy demographics mean the continent is likely to exert far more influence over the global economy in future decades. The population of Nigeria will have surpassed that of the US by 2050 and could rival China as the world’s second-most populous country by the end of this century. Four more African nations – Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – will each have more than 200 million people by mid-century, ranking them among the world’s most populous nations. By that time, Africa will be home to about half of all the world’s children.
Africa’s big, youthful populations promise to boost economic growth as major economies elsewhere battle slowing growth caused by rapidly ageing populations. By the end of this century, more than a third of the world’s people will live in Africa and that means the continent’s economic fortunes will have far more influence over the global economy than it does now. Greater diplomatic and strategic clout is bound to follow.
